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Science 8 July 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5169, pp. 252 - 255
DOI: 10.1126/science.8023144
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Articles

Science, Vol 265, Issue 5169, 252-255
Copyright © 1994 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

The thermal grill illusion: unmasking the burn of cold pain

AD Craig and MC Bushnell

Division of Neurobiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ 85013.

In Thunberg's thermal grill illusion, first demonstrated in 1896, a sensation of strong, often painful heat is elicited by touching interlaced warm and cool bars to the skin. Neurophysiological recordings from two classes of ascending spinothalamic tract neurons that are sensitive to innocuous or noxious cold showed differential responses to the grill. On the basis of these results, a simple model of central disinhibition, or unmasking, predicted a quantitative correspondence between grill-evoked pain and cold-evoked pain, which was verified psychophysically. This integration of pain and temperature can explain the thermal grill illusion and the burning sensation of cold pain and may also provide a basis for the cold-evoked, burning pain of the classic thalamic pain syndrome.


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