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Cutaneous localisation of laser induced pain in humans
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Abstract
Localisation of painful laser-induced stimuli has been compared to localisation of
tactile stimuli in normal humans. Laser stimulation evoked pain of two qualities (sharp
pricking pain and hot burning pain). Sharp pricking pain was found to be localised
with almost equal precision to tactile stimuli (13.8 +/- 3.4 versus 11.6 +/- 2.3 mm)
on the dorsum of the hand, (21.5 +/- 7.9 versus 20.6 +/- 7.5 mm) on the forearm and
(15.5 +/- 5.6 versus 13.8 +/- 5.4 mm) on the foot, respectively. There was no significant
difference between the ability to localise tactile stimuli and hot burning pain except
on the dorsum of the hand. These results indicate that tactile information is not
essential for the accurate localisation of cutaneous pain.