Evaluation of double pulse stimulus types with varying inter pulse intervals for improved observation of the nociceptive function using the NDT method

Recently, a new method was developed for observing the properties of nociceptive processing that are involved in the development and maintenance of chronic pain, through tracking the nociceptive detection thresholds (NDT’s) using intra-epidermal electrical stimulation. In this study the estimation quality of the psychophysical functions of a new stimulus set is explored, which consists only of double pulse stimuli and a larger range of inter pulse intervals. The change in results with respect to the initial stimulus set show that the new stimulus set, consisting only of double pulse stimuli and a larger range of inter pulse intervals, has a higher estimation quality and contains more information about the facilitatory effect, such as temporal summation of post-synaptic potentials. It seems as if there is an increase in nociceptive detection threshold with an increase in inter pulse interval, which is caused by a facilitatory effect like temporal summation of post-synaptic potentials.