• Thomas Weiss, Thomas Straube, Joachim Boettcher, Holger Hecht, Dorothee Spohn, and Wolfgang H R Miltner.
• Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Am Steiger 3 Haus 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany. weiss@biopsy.uni-jena.de
• Neuroimage. 2008 Jul 15;41(4):1372-81.

AbstractThermal and nociceptive cutaneous stimuli activate the brain via two types of nerve fibers, slightly myelinated Adelta-fibers with moderate conduction velocity and unmyelinated C-fibers with slow conduction velocity. Differences in central processing upon selective stimulation of these two fiber types in healthy human subjects still remain poorly understood. By means of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging the present study investigated brain activation in response to stimulation of Adelta- and C-fibers in healthy subjects. We used the stimulation of tiny skin areas to perform a selective stimulation upon cutaneous C-fibers. Besides similar activation in several brain areas in response to both kinds of stimulation, we observed pronounced brain activation to selective C-fiber stimulation as compared to Adelta-fiber stimulation in the right frontal operculum and anterior insula. Based on a putative function of these structures we suggest that the C-fiber system might be engaged in homeostatic and interoceptive functions in a manner other than the Adelta-fiber system, producing a signal of greater emotional salience.

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