TY  - JOUR
ID  - eprints2893
EP  - 1978
VL  - 154
Y1  - 2013/10//
TI  - Hypersensitivity to pain in congenital blindness
AV  - none
JF  - Pain
IS  - 10
UR  - http://journals.lww.com/pain/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2013&issue=10000&article=00014&type=abstract
PB  - Wolters Kluver
SN  - 0304-3959
A1  - Slimani, Hocine
A1  - Danti, Sabrina
A1  - Ricciardi, Emiliano
A1  - Pietrini, Pietro
A1  - Ptito, Maurice
A1  - Kupers, Ron
SP  - 1973
N2  - Vision is important for avoiding encounters with objects in the environment that may imperil physical integrity. We tested whether, in the absence of vision, a lower pain threshold would arise from an adaptive shift to other sensory channels. We therefore measured heat and cold pain thresholds and responses to suprathreshold heat stimuli in 2 groups of congenitally blind and matched normal?sighted participants. We also assessed detection thresholds for innocuous warmth and cold, and participants? attitude toward painful encounters in daily life. Our results show that, compared to sighted subjects, congenitally blind subjects have lower heat pain thresholds, rate suprathreshold heat pain stimuli as more painful, and have increased sensitivity for cold pain stimuli. Thresholds for nonpainful thermal stimulation did not differ between groups. The results of the pain questionnaires further indicated that blind subjects are more attentive to signals of external threats. These findings indicate that the absence of vision from birth induces a hypersensitivity to painful stimuli, lending new support to a model of sensory integration of vision and pain processing.
ER  -