Abstract
Sensitization is an example of malfunctioning of the nociceptive pathway in either the peripheral or central nervous system. Using quantitative sensory testing, one can only infer sensitization, but not determine the defective subsystem. The states of the subsystems may be characterized using computational modeling together with experimental data. Here, we develop a neurophysiologically plausible model replicating experimental observations from a psychophysical human subject study. We study the effects of single temporal stimulus parameters on detection thresholds corresponding to a 0.5 detection probability. To model peripheral activation and central processing, we adapt a stochastic drift-diffusion model and a probabilistic hazard model to our experimental setting without reaction times. We retain six lumped parameters in both models characterizing peripheral and central mechanisms. Both models have similar psychophysical functions, but the hazard model is computationally more efficient. The model-based effects of temporal stimulus parameters on detection thresholds are consistent with those from human subject data.
Highlights
Increased insight into neurophysiological mechanisms of the nociceptive pathway may contribute to more reliable monitoring of chronification of pain and patient-tailored pain therapies (Dworkin et al 2003; Baron 2006)
The estimate might inform about the state of the nociceptive system and possibly indicate its malfunctioning, e.g., due to central sensitization, which could result in chronic pain (Latremoliere and Woolf 2009)
We explained the effects of temporal stimulus parameters on thresholds in a human subject study
Summary
Increased insight into neurophysiological mechanisms of the nociceptive pathway may contribute to more reliable monitoring of chronification of pain and patient-tailored pain therapies (Dworkin et al 2003; Baron 2006). The detection threshold is the amplitude at which half of the stimuli are perceived (Treutwein 1995) This threshold was shown to depend on temporal stimulus parameters for various related stimulus modalities. Other studies suggest that with multiple pulses, the afferent input to secondary neurons is increased by temporal summation (van der Heide et al 2009; Mouraux et al 2014) This effect should wear off for large IPI, and the subject may perceive both pulses independently (Zwislocki 1960; Viemeister and Wakefield 1991). We follow an approach by Plesser and Gerstner (2000) to replace the stochastic problem by a probabilistic hazard model through an escape process This leads to an efficient model for a detection task without reaction times. We discuss how the temporal parameters affect detection thresholds based on the model and conclude with further applications of the hazard model
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