Cutaneous silent period evoked in human first dorsal interosseous muscle motor units by laser stimulation

Abstract

Painful stimulation of the hand results in an inhibitory response in the hand muscles known as the cutaneous silent period (CSP). In this study, we employed probability- and frequency-based analysis methods to examine the CSP induced by laser stimuli. Subjects were asked to contract their first dorsal interosseous muscle so that selected motor units discharged at a rate of about 8 Hz. Laser pulses were delivered to the palm of the hand, and reflex responses were recorded. The stimuli generated CSP in all test subjects. We found that the latency of the CSP evoked using laser stimulation was longer than that the previously published latency values of the CSP evoked using electrical stimulation. Using only the presently generated laser induced CSP data, the CSP duration was longer when analyzed via peristimulus frequencygram method compared to the probability-based methods such as peristimulus time histogram and surface electromyogram. In the light of the current results, we suggest that laser stimulation could be used when studying pain pathways in human subjects and the frequency-based analysis methods can be preferred because they are previously shown to be more reliable for obtaining the synaptic activity profile. These results can be used to standardize the CSP methods in basic and clinical research.