Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers
Neuroplasticity underlies the brain’s ability to alter perception and behavior through training, practice, or simply exposure to sensory stimulation. Improvement of tactile discrimination has been repeatedly demonstrated after repetitive sensory stimulation (rSS) of the fingers; however, it remains...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2012-01-01
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| Series: | Neural Plasticity |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/974504 |
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| author | Rebecca Kowalewski Jan-Christoph Kattenstroth Tobias Kalisch Hubert R. Dinse |
| author_facet | Rebecca Kowalewski Jan-Christoph Kattenstroth Tobias Kalisch Hubert R. Dinse |
| author_sort | Rebecca Kowalewski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Neuroplasticity underlies the brain’s ability to alter perception and behavior through training, practice, or simply exposure to sensory stimulation. Improvement of tactile discrimination has been repeatedly demonstrated after repetitive sensory stimulation (rSS) of the fingers; however, it remains unknown if such protocols also affect hand dexterity or pain thresholds. We therefore stimulated the thumb and index finger of young adults to investigate, besides testing tactile discrimination, the impact of rSS on dexterity, pain, and touch thresholds. We observed an improvement in the pegboard task where subjects used the thumb and index finger only. Accordingly, stimulating 2 fingers simultaneously potentiates the efficacy of rSS. In fact, we observed a higher gain of discrimination performance as compared to a single-finger rSS. In contrast, pain and touch thresholds remained unaffected. Our data suggest that selecting particular fingers modulates the efficacy of rSS, thereby affecting processes controlling sensorimotor integration. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1dbf7e4fc1ac4d2891c8c9db04033724 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2090-5904 1687-5443 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Neural Plasticity |
| spelling | doaj-art-1dbf7e4fc1ac4d2891c8c9db040337242025-08-20T03:54:38ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432012-01-01201210.1155/2012/974504974504Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the FingersRebecca Kowalewski0Jan-Christoph Kattenstroth1Tobias Kalisch2Hubert R. Dinse3Neural Plasticity Laboratory, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, GermanyNeural Plasticity Laboratory, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, GermanyNeural Plasticity Laboratory, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, GermanyNeural Plasticity Laboratory, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, GermanyNeuroplasticity underlies the brain’s ability to alter perception and behavior through training, practice, or simply exposure to sensory stimulation. Improvement of tactile discrimination has been repeatedly demonstrated after repetitive sensory stimulation (rSS) of the fingers; however, it remains unknown if such protocols also affect hand dexterity or pain thresholds. We therefore stimulated the thumb and index finger of young adults to investigate, besides testing tactile discrimination, the impact of rSS on dexterity, pain, and touch thresholds. We observed an improvement in the pegboard task where subjects used the thumb and index finger only. Accordingly, stimulating 2 fingers simultaneously potentiates the efficacy of rSS. In fact, we observed a higher gain of discrimination performance as compared to a single-finger rSS. In contrast, pain and touch thresholds remained unaffected. Our data suggest that selecting particular fingers modulates the efficacy of rSS, thereby affecting processes controlling sensorimotor integration.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/974504 |
| spellingShingle | Rebecca Kowalewski Jan-Christoph Kattenstroth Tobias Kalisch Hubert R. Dinse Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers Neural Plasticity |
| title | Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers |
| title_full | Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers |
| title_fullStr | Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers |
| title_short | Improved Acuity and Dexterity but Unchanged Touch and Pain Thresholds following Repetitive Sensory Stimulation of the Fingers |
| title_sort | improved acuity and dexterity but unchanged touch and pain thresholds following repetitive sensory stimulation of the fingers |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/974504 |
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