SPATIAL PROPERTIES OF CUTANEOUS TEMPERATURE SENSITIVITY

描述（改编自申请人摘要）PI最近 发现皮肤的区域可以发现，缺乏敏感性， 温暖这些令人惊讶的大（5平方厘米），温不敏感场 对低于41摄氏度的供暖漠不关心的WIFs与这一观点相矛盾 在皮肤上的任何地方都可以感觉到宏观的温暖刺激， 这意味着低阈值暖纤维皮肤神经支配可以 非常稀疏和不规则。PI指出， WIF说明了重新分析空间分布的必要性 利用现代心理物理测量方法 和温度控制。因此，他的项目的第一个目标是 研究人体不同部位的热敏感性 以及个体之间的差异，并确定空间上的差异 温暖的密度和分布可能有助于区域和 个体对宏观刺激的感知差异。第二 这个项目的目标是调查温暖的程度， 地形可以随时间改变。早期点状热成像图 敏感性本身是可变，初步数据表明， 在几周或几个月的时间里，敏感性可以在 以前的WIFs他的项目的第三个目标是 利用WIF提供的非凡机会来研究热量 伤害感受和冷感觉直接，不依赖于传入 活动在温暖的感觉。PI提出的实验将使用 WIF研究这两个系统的基本心理物理特性 并解决长期存在的问题， 低阈值温暖系统的感知冷，热， 热痛。总的来说，拟议的研究应该产生新的 有可能改变当前思维的心理物理数据 关于人类的空间组织和功能特征 热灵敏度此外，区域和个人研究 不同的温暖地形和贡献的温暖 系统加热和加热疼痛将提供必要的信息， 临床评估中热敏感性的使用和解释 周围神经病变

DESCRIPTION (adapted from the applicant's abstract) The PI recently discovered that areas of skin can be found that lack sensitivity to warmth. These surprisingly large (5 sq.cm.), warmth-insensitive fields (WIFs), which are indifferent to heating below 41C, contradict the view that macroscopic warm stimuli can be sensed everywhere on the skin and imply that cutaneous innervation by low-threshold warm fibers can be remarkably sparse and irregular. The PI states that the discovery of WIFs illustrates the need for a reanalysis of the spatial distribution of warmth sensitivity using modern methods of psychophysical measurement and temperature control. Accordingly, the first goal of his project is to study the topography of warmth sensitivity in different body regions and across individuals, and to determine how differences in the spatial density and distribution of warmth may contribute to regional and individual differences in perception of macroscopic stimuli. The second goal of this project is to investigate the extent to which warmth topography may change over time. Early maps of punctate thermal sensitivity were inherently variable, and preliminary data suggest that over periods of weeks or months, sensitivity can develop within previously identified WIFs. The third goal of his project is to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities WIFs provide to study heat nociception and cold perception directly, independent of afferent activity in the warmth sense. The PI proposes experiments that will use WIFs to investigate basic psychophysical properties of these two systems and to address long-standing questions about the possible contribution of the low-threshold warmth system to the perception of cold, heat, and heat pain. Overall, the proposed studies should yield novel psychophysical data that have the potential to change current thinking about the spatial organization and functional characteristics of human thermal sensitivity. In addition, studies of regional and individual differences in warmth topography and of the contribution of the warmth system to heat and heat pain will provide information essential to the use and interpretation of thermal sensitivity in clinical assessments of peripheral neuropathy.