Localization of touch versus heat pain in the human hand: A dissociative effect of temporal parameters on discriminative capacity and decision strategy

We studied the influence of temporal parameters on localization of monofilament-evoked touch versus thulium laser-induced and C fiber-mediated pain in human subjects. Stimuli were applied at interstimulus intervals (ISIs) varying from 1 to 9 s to determine discrimination between successive stimulus sites in the palmar skin. Localization threshold was about two times higher for heat pain than touch. The localization threshold for pain, but not touch, decreased with prolongation of the ISI from 1 to 7–9 s, and it remained higher for pain even at the ISI of 9 s. The response time was longer for pain than touch, and it increased with an increase in the ISI, independent of the modality. Discriminative capacity, as assessed by the receiver operating characteristics curve, was markedly better for touch than pain. The discriminative capacity decreased with an increase of the ISI, but only for touch. The results indicate that localization is more accurate for touch than pain. Temporal summation of C fiber-evoked pain contributes to the reduced accuracy of pain localization if the ISI is ⩽3 s. Additionally, temporal factors dissociatively influence the response strategy in the tactile versus pain localization task with the prolongation of the ISI from 1 to 9 s. Due to this strategy change, localization threshold for touch remains constant at prolonged ISIs, in spite of a decrease in discriminative capacity. In a cutaneous localization task, the subject’s accuracy and response strategy vary with the modality and temporal parameters of sequential test stimulation.