Highlights
- •Temporal summation of second pain (TSSP) is linked to central sensitization.
- •Affective touch (AT) decreases TSSP, while discriminative touch does not.
- •Also, higher body awareness is linked with higher pain during discriminative touch.
- •The mechanisms underpinning AT could prove useful against chronic pain.
Abstract
C-tactile (CT) fibers, responsible for the so-called “affective” touch (AT), have
drawn a fair amount of attention within the scientific community for their marked
social dimension. However, while the pain-relieving potential of discriminative touch
(DT) has been documented, proofs of the analgesic properties of AT are still scarce.
Additionally, no study has so far tested its possible pain-relieving effects on a
clinically-relevant model. Temporal summation of second pain (TSSP), otherwise referred
to as “wind-up,” relies on repetitive stimulation of C-nociceptors and it is thought
to reflect central sensitization, a process linked to many chronic pain conditions.
In the present experimental, within participants, design we induced TSSP through trains
of ascending and descending repetitive heat stimulation. Forty-two healthy participants’
pain was measured during 2 different tactile stimulations (stroking velocities AT:
10 cm/s; DT: 0.3 cm/s) or without concomitant tactile input. Since measures of pleasantness
of the tactile stimulation have been found to strongly correlate with C-tactile fibers’
firing rate, these, together with participants’ body awareness, were also taken into
account.
Our results show that AT brought about a decrease of our participants’ pain as opposed
to both DT and no touch, while DT did not produce any significant pain reduction.
Thus, only AT successfully modulated wind-up. As expected, AT was perceived as more
pleasant than DT, while a clear relationship between body awareness and pain was found
only during DT.
Targeting CT fibers could pave the way to new treatments for chronic pain conditions
whose aetiology depend on abnormal C-nociceptors’ physiology.
Perspective
This study extends previous findings on the analgesic potential of affective touch,
documenting a clear pain reduction during temporal summation of second pain (TSSP).
Since TSSP is thought to reflect central sensitization, the psychophysiological mechanisms
of affective touch could be exploited for new chronic pain treatments.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 16, 2021
Accepted:
January 3,
2021
Received in revised form:
December 14,
2020
Received:
October 30,
2020
Footnotes
Conflicts of Interest: This research has been supported by UEL Research Capital Fund. All authors declared no potential conflict of interest with respect, authorship, and\or publication of this article.
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© 2021 by United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
