Laser-evoked potentials for assessment of nociceptive pathways in humans

I n their Focus article, Chen, Arendt-Nielsen, and Plaghki [8] provide a comprehensive review of the . literature o~ human evoked potentials that ~re elicited by noxious heat, usually generated by Infrared laser stimulators. From this review, we identified four issues that may deserve a comment: (1) Standardize the experiment or its scientific report? (2) Nociception and pain. (3) What do laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) really measure? (4) Rational clinical use. For the sake of brevity, we do not attempt to quote all relevant literature; a complete literature survey can be found in a recent review paper by Bromm and Lorenz [4].

[1]  R. Meyer,et al.  Response of C fibre nociceptors in the anaesthetized monkey to heat stimuli: correlation with pain threshold in humans. , 1995, The Journal of physiology.

[2]  F. Mauguière,et al.  Association and dissociation between laser‐evoked potentials and pain perception , 1997, Neuroreport.

[3]  S. Boyd,et al.  Sensory and cognitive components of the CO2 laser evoked cerebral potential. , 1993, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[4]  Hiroshi Shibasaki,et al.  Somatosensory evoked potentials Diagnostic criteria and abnormalities in cerebral lesions , 1977, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[5]  K Kunze,et al.  Differentiation of conversive sensory loss and malingering by P300 in a modified oddball task , 1998, Neuroreport.

[6]  Ulf Lindblom,et al.  Touch, temperature, and pain in health and disease : mechanisms and assessments : a Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium , 1994 .

[7]  L. Arendt-Nielsen,et al.  Quantitative evaluation of hypnotically suggested hyperaesthesia and analgesia by painful laser stimulation , 1990, Pain.

[8]  J. Lorenz,et al.  Neurophysiological evaluation of pain. , 1998, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[9]  D. Yarnitsky,et al.  The P300 in pain evoked potentials , 1996, Pain.

[10]  Andrew C. N. Chen,et al.  Brain evoked potentials are functional correlates of induced pain in man , 1979, PAIN.

[11]  S. Gibson,et al.  Assessment of pain in the elderly using event-related cerebral potentials , 1990, Pain.

[12]  B. Tettenborn,et al.  Elektrophysiologische Methoden sind der Magnetresonanztomographie beim Nachweis von Hirnstammläsionen überlegen , 1994 .

[13]  R. T. Pivik,et al.  Guidelines for the recording and quantitative analysis of electroencephalographic activity in research contexts. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[14]  G. Friehs,et al.  Evidence for segregated pain and temperature conduction within the spinothalamic tract. , 1995, Journal of neurosurgery.

[15]  A. Carmon,et al.  Single trial analysis of evoked potentials to noxious thermal stimulation in man , 1980, PAIN.

[16]  Josef K. Wang.  Advances in Pain Research and Therapy , 1980 .

[17]  R. Treede,et al.  Laser-evoked potentials: exogenous and endogenous components. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[18]  C Tomberg,et al.  Mapping early somatosensory evoked potentials in selective attention: critical evaluation of control conditions used for titrating by difference the cognitive P30, P40, P100 and N140. , 1989, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[19]  J D Greenspan,et al.  Stimulus features relevant to the perception of sharpness and mechanically evoked cutaneous pain. , 1991, Somatosensory & motor research.

[20]  L. Arendt-Nielsen,et al.  Selective averaging of argon laser induced pre-pain and pain related cortical responses , 1988, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[21]  R. Meyer,et al.  Evidence for two different heat transduction mechanisms in nociceptive primary afferents innervating monkey skin. , 1995, The Journal of physiology.

[22]  Terence W. Picton,et al.  Human event-related potentials , 1988 .

[23]  Andrew C. N. Chen,et al.  Laser-evoked potentials in human pain: I. Use and possible misuse , 1998 .

[24]  David Yarnitsky,et al.  Heat pain thresholds: normative data and repeatability , 1995, Pain.

[25]  R. Treede,et al.  Heat‐evoked vasodilatation in human hairy skin: axon reflexes due to low‐level activity of nociceptive afferents. , 1996, The Journal of physiology.

[26]  J. Desmedt.  Attention, Voluntary Contraction and Event-Related Cerebral Potentials , 1977 .

[27]  E. Chudler,et al.  The assessment of pain by cerebral evoked potentials , 1983, Pain.

[28]  H Shibasaki,et al.  Pain-related and cognitive components of somatosensory evoked potentials following CO2 laser stimulation in man. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[29]  T. Jensen,et al.  Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Pain , 1997 .

[30]  J. Spiegel,et al.  Laser-evoked potentials after painful hand and foot stimulation in humans: evidence for generation of the middle-latency component in the secondary somatosensory cortex , 1996, Neuroscience Letters.