Thermal pain tolerance depends on stimulus duration and thermode type

Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) measures how acute pain and sensation vary within and across individuals. It remains unclear how specific stimulus features, such as thermode type and stimulation duration, affect QST outcomes. We measured acute thermal pain in 93 healthy volunteers using three thermode types and two durations to assess potential impacts on QST outcomes. Across three experiments, participants completed two QST tasks, in which heat was applied to 8 sites on the left forearm. Thermode type (ATS, CHEPS, T03) and stimulus duration (3s, 8s) varied across tasks. We used linear regression to identify pain threshold, tolerance, and temperature-pain correlation (r²). Briefer stimuli were associated with higher pain tolerance (t(45) = 5.84, p < 0.001). Thermode type also influenced pain tolerance, such that tolerance was lower with higher surface area (t(45) = 4.79, p < 0.001). There was a weak effect of duration on pain Threshold. Pain threshold was higher in 3s duration than in 8s duration (t(45) = 2.25, p = 0.03). Neither duration nor thermode type affected temperature-pain correlation, and these effects did not differ by controlling for biological sex or task order (all p values > 0.05). These results demonstrate that QST outcomes are differentially sensitive to stimulus features, highlighting the importance of methodological standardization and the careful selection of suprathreshold stimuli in pain experiments. PERSPECTIVE: This study demonstrates the importance of considering stimulus features in "big data" approaches, as pain tolerance is significantly affected by stimulus duration and thermode type, whereas pain thresholds and temperature-pain correlations remain relatively stable.