Using heat and pressure stimuli on small and large fibres separately on both younger and older adults, this study examined age-associated changes in pain perception by measuring self-reported pain sensitivity, pain threshold and pain discriminability.
Heat pain threshold was significantly positively correlated with age, but not pressure pain threshold. Pain threshold increased and pain discriminability decreased in response to heat stimuli in the older participants compared with the younger ones.
An age-associated decline in heat pain perception was observed, suggesting an earlier degradation of heat perception. These findings provide new insight into understanding and assessing somatosensory disorders, which can help ageing populations better maintain healthy sensory functioning.
方法:对年轻人和老年人分别对小纤维和大纤维使用热和压力刺激,这项研究通过测量自我报告的疼痛敏感性来检查疼痛感知的年龄相关变化,痛阈值和疼痛辨别能力。
结果:热痛阈与年龄呈显著正相关,但不是压力痛阈值。与年轻参与者相比,老年参与者对热刺激的反应疼痛阈值增加,疼痛辨别能力降低。
结论:观察到与年龄相关的热痛感知下降,表明热感知的早期退化。这些发现为理解和评估体感障碍提供了新的见解,这可以帮助老年人更好地保持健康的感官功能。