Pain diagnosis using phasic and tonic pain modells:: Clinical applications and funktional neuroimaging

Experimental pain models based on phasic and tonic contact heat pain involve two modes of central nervous pain processing, mediated by the lateral and medial afferent system. This is the cause for differential clinical validity of phasic and tonic pain models in chronic pain diagnostics. A clinical study shows that tonic pain models are superior in identifying aspects of medial pain processing in chronic pain syndromes. Functional neuroimaging in healthy subjects verify a separate cerebral processing of phasic and tonic pain stimuli.