When you put your hands on the grill, which has alternating hot and cold sticks, you may feel heat and pain, even though it shouldn't really be hot.This phenomenon is called the "thermal grill illusion" and is thought to be caused by the central nervous system mechanism in the spinal cord-cerebral cortex, but its pain properties are similar to those of patients who have actually injured the central nervous system. It was not clear if it was there.
This time, Associate Professor Tomohiro Ozumi and Professor Shu Morioka of the Neurorehabilitation Research Center of Kio University collaborated with Associate Professor Masahiko Sumitani of the Department of Palliative Care at the University of Tokyo Hospital to analyze the nature of pain caused by the illusion of thermal grilling. ..As a result, it was found that the nature of pain in the thermal grill illusion is similar to post-stroke pain and post-spinal cord injury pain caused by the central nervous system mechanism.
First, in an experiment with 137 healthy people, it was confirmed that the illusion of a thermal grill causes pain such as "skins", "burning", "tingling", and "numbness". rice field.Next, we analyzed the nature of pain in 131 post-herpes zoster neuralgia, 83 trigeminal neuralgia, 31 post-stroke pain, and 42 post-spinal injury pain, and examined similarities / differences with the pain properties caused by the thermal grill illusion. However, the nature of the pain specific to the thermal grill illusion is not similar to post-shoulder neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia as caused by peripheral neural mechanism, and post-stroke pain as caused by central nervous mechanism, It was found to be similar in nature to post-spinal pain.This is a result of supporting the theory that the thermal grill illusion is caused by the central nervous system mechanism.
In addition, the experimental pain revealed in this study may contribute to the devising of new rehabilitation for pain that occurs after stroke and spinal cord injury, and to the sharing of pain between rehabilitation specialists and patients. be.
Paper information:[Scand J Pain] Pain quality of thermal grill illusion is similar to that of central neuropathic pain rather than peripheral neuropathic pain
