Zhi Yongkang, Zhao Chen, Zhang Yu, Ni Jianzhang, Zhang Ming, Fan Dongsheng, Kong Yazhuo
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Biomedicines. 2025 Sep 11;13(9):2241. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines13092241.
: Ischemic stroke frequently leads to somatosensory impairments and abnormal pain perception. Meanwhile, pain perception can be evoked through multiple somatosensory modalities, each mediated by distinct neural pathways. Despite this understanding, current research investigating stroke-induced alterations in pain perception across different modalities of noxious stimulation remains insufficient, particularly concerning responses to varying stimulus intensities (including both sub-threshold and supra-threshold levels). : In this study (March 2023 to July 2024), we enrolled 30 ischemic stroke patients and 35 matched controls and employed two modalities of noxious stimuli (e.g., heat stimuli were delivered using the Medoc CHEPS and pressure stimuli were administered via an MRI-Compatible Foot-Sole Stimulator) to systematically evaluate post-stroke changes in pain perception through two experiments. We compared self-reported pain sensitivity, somatosensory thresholds (i.e., warmth and pressure), and pain thresholds (i.e., heat and pressure pain) between ischemic stroke patients and healthy controls in Experiment 1. We focused on pain perception when participants simultaneously experienced heat and pressure in Experiment 2. : Experiment 1 showed an absence of a significant correlation between heat and pressure pain thresholds in stroke patients, but this correlation could be observed in healthy controls. Notably, stroke patients had an impairment in pain perception of pressure stimulation at supra-threshold intensities. Experiment 2 observed a similar facilitative pain integration in patients as healthy controls when they perceived heat and pressure stimuli jointly and simultaneously. : These findings provide valuable insights into pain perception following a stroke, highlighting the need for tailored evaluation strategies considering the differences in somatosensory modality damage.
缺血性中风常导致躯体感觉障碍和异常疼痛感知。同时，疼痛感知可通过多种躯体感觉模态诱发，每种模态由不同的神经通路介导。尽管有这种认识，但目前关于中风引起的不同有害刺激模态下疼痛感知变化的研究仍然不足，特别是关于对不同刺激强度（包括阈下和阈上水平）的反应。：在本研究（2023年3月至2024年7月）中，我们招募了30名缺血性中风患者和35名匹配的对照，采用两种有害刺激模态（例如，使用Medoc CHEPS进行热刺激，通过MRI兼容的足底刺激器施加压力刺激），通过两个实验系统评估中风后疼痛感知的变化。在实验1中，我们比较了缺血性中风患者和健康对照之间自我报告的疼痛敏感性、躯体感觉阈值（即温暖和压力）以及疼痛阈值（即热痛和压痛）。在实验2中，我们关注参与者同时经历热和压力时的疼痛感知。：实验1表明，中风患者的热痛和压痛阈值之间不存在显著相关性，但在健康对照中可以观察到这种相关性。值得注意的是，中风患者在阈上强度的压力刺激疼痛感知方面存在损害。实验2观察到，当患者同时共同感知热和压力刺激时，与健康对照有类似的促进性疼痛整合。：这些发现为中风后的疼痛感知提供了有价值的见解，强调了考虑躯体感觉模态损伤差异的定制评估策略的必要性。
