Mylius Veit, Kunz Miriam, Hennighausen Elisabeth, Lautenbacher Stefan, Schepelmann Karsten
Department of Neurology, Philipps University of Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-Str. 8, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
Neurosci Lett. 2008 Dec 3;446(2-3):129-32. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2008.09.048.
The course of ageing leads to various changes in the nervous system, which can affect pain processing in the elderly. However, the affection of different components of the nociceptive system remains unclear. To investigate basic nocifensive responses, we compared age-related changes of autonomic and motor reflex responses to noxious electrical stimulation. In 39 healthy young subjects (mean +/- S.D.; 24.1 +/- 3.3 years) and 52 healthy elderly subjects (mean +/- S.D.; 71.9 +/- 5.3 years) the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) and the sympathetic skin response (SSR) were determined using noxious electrical stimulation of the sural nerve. Verbal pain ratings were assessed in addition. No ageing effects on the NFR and on verbal pain ratings were found, whereas the SSR amplitude declined significantly with ageing. Since both SSR and NFR share comparable primary afferent pathways and the motor as well as the subjective responses to noxious stimulation were preserved, our data seem to suggest that central or peripheral efferent sympathetic functions are altered by age.
衰老过程会导致神经系统发生各种变化，这可能会影响老年人的疼痛处理。然而，伤害感受系统不同组成部分所受的影响仍不明确。为了研究基本的伤害防御反应，我们比较了对有害电刺激的自主神经和运动反射反应的年龄相关变化。在39名健康年轻受试者（平均±标准差；24.1±3.3岁）和52名健康老年受试者（平均±标准差；71.9±5.3岁）中，通过对腓肠神经进行有害电刺激来测定伤害性屈曲反射（NFR）和交感皮肤反应（SSR）。此外，还评估了言语疼痛评分。未发现衰老对NFR和言语疼痛评分有影响，而SSR波幅随衰老显著下降。由于SSR和NFR共享相当的初级传入通路，并且对有害刺激的运动以及主观反应得以保留，我们的数据似乎表明，中枢或外周传出交感神经功能会因年龄而改变。
