Lower Tinetti scores can support an early diagnosis of spatial neglect in post-stroke patients.

Background: Neglect represents a severe complication of stroke, which impairs patients' daily activities. An early diagnosis of neglect is fundamental for management decisions.

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the Tinetti Test as an outcome of spatial neglect in post-stroke patients.

Cortical inhibition of laser pain and laser-evoked potentials by non-nociceptive somatosensory input.

Although the inhibitory action that tactile stimuli can have on pain is well documented, the precise timing of the interaction between the painful and non-painful stimuli in the central nervous system is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate this issue by measuring the timing of the amplitude modulation of laser evoked potentials (LEPs) due to conditioning non-painful stimuli. LEPs were recorded from 31 scalp electrodes in 10 healthy subjects after painful stimulation of the right arm (C6-C7 dermatomes).

Habituation to pain in "medication overuse headache": a CO2 laser-evoked potential study.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate CO(2) laser-evoked potential (LEP) habituation to experimental pain in a group of patients affected by medication-overuse headache, with a history of episodic migraine becoming chronic, before and after treatment, consisting in acute medication withdrawal and a preventive treatment cycle.

Background: One of the main features of LEPs in migraineurs is a lower habituation to repetitive noxious stimuli during the interictal phase.

Methods: LEPs were recorded to stimulation of both the right hand and the right perioral region in 14 patients and in 14 healthy subjects.

Spinal cord stimulation normalizes abnormal cortical pain processing in patients with cardiac syndrome X.

Cardiac syndrome X (CSX) is characterized by effort angina, ST-segment depression during stress tests and normal coronary arteries. Abnormal nociception was suggested in these patients by studies showing a reduced cardiac pain threshold; furthermore, we recently found a lack of habituation to pain stimuli using recording of laser evoked potentials (LEPs). In CSX patients with severe angina, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) was shown to improve symptoms.

Seeing the pain of others while being in pain: a laser-evoked potentials study.

Seeing actions, emotions and feelings of other individuals may activate resonant mechanisms that allow the empathic understanding of others' states. Being crucial for implementing pro-social behaviors, empathy is considered as inherently altruistic. Here we explored whether the personal experience of pain make individuals less inclined to share others' pain.

Nociceptive contribution to the evoked potentials after painful intramuscular electrical stimulation.

Our study aimed at investigating the nociceptive contribution to the somatosensory evoked potentials after electrical intramuscular stimulation (mSEPs) at painful intensity. Scalp mSEPs were recorded in 10 healthy subjects after electrical stimulation of the left brachioradialis muscle at three intensities: non-painful (I2), slightly painful (I4) and moderately painful (I6). For each intensity, mSEPs were recorded in a neutral condition (NC) in which subjects did not have any task, and in an attention condition (AC) in which subjects were asked to count the number of stimuli.

Parallel spinal pathways generate the middle-latency N1 and the late P2 components of the laser evoked potentials.

Objective: To investigate the possible presence of multiple spino-thalamic pathways with different conduction velocities (CVs) in the human spinal cord.

Methods: Laser evoked potentials (LEPs) were recorded in 10 healthy subjects after stimulation of the dorsal midline at four vertebral level: C5, T2, T6, and T10. This method allowed us to minimize the influence of the conduction in the peripheral fibers and to calculate the spinal CV in two different ways: (1) the reciprocal of the slope of the regression line was obtained from the latencies of the different LEP components, and (2) the distance between C5 and T10 was divided by the latency difference of the responses at the two sites.

Distraction affects frontal alpha rhythms related to expectancy of pain: an EEG study.

Previous electroencephalographic (EEG) evidence has shown event-related desynchronization (ERD) of alpha rhythms before predictable painful stimuli, as a possible neural concomitant of attentional preparatory processes (Babiloni, C., Brancucci, A., Babiloni, F.

Attentional training in elderly subjects affects voluntarily oriented, but not automatic attention: a neurophysiological study.

Objectives: Our study aimed at investigating the effect of repetitive recordings on somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) related to spatial attention in a population of healthy elderly subjects.

Methods: Fifteen healthy elderly subjects were tested for six consecutive days using a somatosensory oddball paradigm, in which target stimuli were applied above the elbow and the non-target stimuli on the ipsilateral shoulder. Brain electrical activity was recorded from six scalp electrodes (Fz, Cz, F3, F4, T3 and T4).

Abnormal cortical pain processing in patients with cardiac syndrome X.

Aims: Previous studies suggested that an enhanced pain sensitivity is present in patients with cardiac syndrome X (SX). We investigated whether SX patients present abnormalities in the electrical cerebral signals generated by pain stimuli.

Methods And Results: Cortical laser evoked potentials (LEPs) were recorded in 16 SX patients, in 10 patients with refractory angina due to obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and in 13 healthy controls.

Functional assessment of A delta and C fibers in patients with Fabry's disease.

The pathophysiology of neuropathic pain in Fabry's disease (FD) is still largely unknown. Seven FD patients were studied by laser evoked potentials (LEPs) to assess the function of the A delta and C fibers. Laser pulses were delivered on the skin of the hand and perioral region at painful intensity to record LEPs related to A delta-fiber inputs and at nonpainful intensity to obtain LEPs related to C-fiber inputs.

Inhibitory effect of capsaicin evoked trigeminal pain on warmth sensation and warmth evoked potentials.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of tonic pain evoked by topical application of capsaicin on the somatosensory sensation of warmth. The warmth pathways were studied in ten healthy subjects by recording the scalp potentials evoked by non-painful warm laser stimuli delivered on both the right and left perioral region (warmth C-fiber related laser-evoked potentials (C-LEPs)). Tonic pain was induced by topical capsaicin application above the lateral part of the right upper lip.

Short-term plastic changes of the human nociceptive system following acute pain induced by capsaicin.

Objective: To investigate possible neuroplastic changes induced by pain in cerebral areas devoted to nociceptive input processing.

Methods: CO(2) laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) were recorded from 10 healthy subjects after stimulation of the right and left hand dorsum. Acute pain was obtained by topical application of capsaicin on the skin of right hand dorsum.

Attention-related modifications of ultra-late CO(2) laser evoked potentials to human trigeminal nerve stimulation.

Our study aimed at investigating the scalp topography of ultra-late CO(2) laser evoked potentials (LEPs), which are related to C fiber activation, and at exploring the effect of attention deviation on ultra-late LEPs. Brain responses to non-painful CO(2) laser stimuli were recorded in ten healthy subjects in three different conditions: (i) neutral condition in which subjects did not have any task; (ii) distraction condition in which subjects were asked to perform a mathematical task; and (iii) attention condition in which subjects had to count the number of stimuli. In all subjects, also A fiber-related late LEPs were recorded after painful CO(2) laser stimulation.