Relationship of Electrically Induced Pain to the Amperage and the Wattage of Shock Stimuli

Hill, Harris E.; Flanary, Harold G.; Kornetsky, Conan; Wikler, Abraham

doi:10.1172/jci102631

Cited by 26 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Variables in each of three main classes have been proposed by some investigators to account, in part at least, for the lack of uniformity of the pain threshold: 1. Peripheral nonsensory factors, i.e., lack of adequate control of the physical proximal stimulus (2,5,9). The critical stimulus for pain is not known.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in pain thresholds.

Clark

Bindra²

1956

Canadian Journal of Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologi

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IN THE PAST couple of decades a variety of studies dealing with pain thresholds have been reported. Some of these studies have been concerned with thermal-pain thresholds, others with electrical-or pressurepain thresholds. Some investigators have used uninstructed and naive subjects, while others have used subjects who were both sophisticated and specifically instructed. Except for a series of studies (5) in which a small number (three) of highly sophisticated and instructed subjects was used, the most striking finding in these various studies has been the marked individual differences in thresholds obtained under identical instructions and conditions of stimulation. The present study aims to throw some light on the source of these individual differences.The problem is approached by comparing the reactions of the same subjects to three different types of noxious stimulation: heat, electric current, and pressure. Two aspects of the response to painful stimulation are studied: pain threshold and tolerance level. The latter term refers to the maximum intensity of the noxious stimulation to which the subject is willing to expose himself. It was hoped that comparison of these two measures under three types of pain stimulation would clarify the nature of the observed individual differences. METHOD SubjectsThe Ss were 46 normal adult males who had volunteered for service in the Canadian Army. All Ss had completed at least 7 years of schooling; they ranged in age from 17 to 30 years. ApparatusThe apparatus consisted of three stimulators, each designed to deliver to S's arm controllable noxious intensities of electric current, pressure, or radiant heat.Electric stimulator. The voltage for stimulation was obtained from the 110-voIt, 60-cycIe power line through a variac and a step-up transformer, the output of which could be varied between 0 and 4500 volts. The current through S was limited by a series resistance of 1.5 megohms. As the resistance of S was negligible in comparison with 1.5 megohms, a close approximation to the current passing through S is given 1 This research was supported by a grant to Professor D. O. Hebb from Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in pain thresholds.

Clark

Bindra²

1956

Canadian Journal of Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologi

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“…In this manner a family of wattage curves was employed for pre-setting the stimulator at any desired step of the scale. The (10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Anxiety and Morphine on Discrimination of Intensities of Painful Stimuli

Hill¹,

Kornetsky²,

Flanary³

et al. 1952

J. Clin. Invest.

Self Cite

108

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“…Although there This research was supported by Grant AO-392 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the senior author. Requests for reprints should be sent to Gary B. Rollman, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada. have been attempts to obtain psychophysical functions for intense stimuli in several modalities (e.g., Adair, Stevens, & Marks, 1968;Cooper, Vierck, & Yeomans, 1986;Craig, Best, & Ward, 1975;Ekmanet al, 1964;Gracely, McGrath, & Dubner, 1978;Grossberg & Grant, 1978;Hilgard et al, 1974;Hill, Flanary, Kernetsky, & Wikler, 1952;Starn, Petrusic, & Spanos, 1981;Sternbach & Tursky, 1964;Tursky, Jamner, & Friedman, 1982), at present considerably more is known about the psychophysics of thermal pain than about electrocutaneous discomfort.…”

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confidence: 99%

The detectability, discriminability, and perceived magnitude of painful electrical shock

Rollman

Harris

1987

Perception & Psychophysics

109

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Thresholds for sensation, pain, and tolerance were obtained from 20 male and 20 female observers who received trains of electrical pulses applied to the volar forearm. Also determined were estimates of sensory magnitude for a series of stimuli that spanned the pain sensitivity range (PSR) between pain threshold and tolerance, as well as Weber fractions for the discrimination of stimuli at the midpoint of the PSR. There were great individual differences in all dependent variables. Females had significantly lower values for all thresholds but did not differ from males in the growth of sensory magnitude or in discriminatory capacity. Power functions, with a median exponent of 1.74 and a mean of 2.39, fit the scaling data well. The results are analyzed for a suggested negative correlation between exponent and stimulus range. The presence of such an effect indicates that electrocutaneous stimulation provides a powerful technique for the analysis of individual differences and the evaluation of psychophysical theories.Electrical stimulation of the skin provides a useful induction method for laboratory studies of pain (Procacci, Della Corte, et al., 1974;Rollman, 1983a; Smith & Andrew, 1970): it is readily graded in intensity, can be turned on and off instantaneously, and produces no lasting physical damage.Past research has typically demonstrated that the subjective magnitudes of the sensations produced by electrical pulses can be related to their current or voltage by a power function with an exponent greater than unity, indicating that the perceived intensity grows at a rate faster than the physical one. The reported value of the exponent of the power function has varied considerably, from near 1.0 to beyond 3.0 (e.g., Algom, Raphaeli, & Cohen- Raz, 1986; Babkoff, 1976 Babkoff, , 1978 Beck & Rosner, 1968;Bevan, 1966;Bromm & Treede, 1980; Bujas, Szabo, Kovacic, & Rohacek, 1975; Ekman, Frankenhaeuser, Levander, & Mellis, 1964Hawkes, 1960; McCallum & Goldberg, 1975;Sachs, Miller, & Grant, 1980;Sternbach & Tursky, 1964;Stevens, Carton, & Shickman, 1958;Tashiro & Higashiyama, 1981). These differences can be ascribed, in part, to the effects of stimulus parameters and correction of the power function for threshold (Rollman, 1974), to the nature and scaling of the physical stimulus (Myers, 1982), to the painfulness of the presentations (Jones, 1980), and to regression and range effects (Cross, Tursky, & Lodge, 1975).Although electrical shocks can be painful, most of the studies cited above determined power functions at levels that were weak enough for the sensation to be described as being tactile rather than nociceptive. Although there This research was supported by Grant AO-392 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the senior author. Requests for reprints should be sent to Gary B. Rollman, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada.have been attempts to obtain psychophysical functions for intense stimuli in several modalities (e.g

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Relationship of Electrically Induced Pain to the Amperage and the Wattage of Shock Stimuli

Cited by 26 publications

References 8 publications

Individual differences in pain thresholds.

Individual differences in pain thresholds.

Effects of Anxiety and Morphine on Discrimination of Intensities of Painful Stimuli

The detectability, discriminability, and perceived magnitude of painful electrical shock

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