ArticlePloS one2011
Evidence for thalamic involvement in the thermal grill illusion: an FMRI study.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reliability and Validity of a Novel, Portable Thermal Grill Illusion Apparatus Using Two Graphene Probes: An Initial Psychophysical Validation Study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Observational
- Cortical dynamics of cold exposure and thermal recovery: Evidence from EEG-based spatiotemporal analysis.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain.Science advances · 2025Article
- Strong and aversive cold processing and pain facilitation in fibromyalgia patients relates to augmented thermal grill illusion.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Real-Time High-Level Acute Pain Detection Using a Smartphone and a Wrist-Worn Electrodermal Activity Sensor.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Using electrodermal activity to validate multilevel pain stimulation in healthy volunteers evoked by thermal grills.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2020Article
- The Cerebral Localization of Pain: Anatomical and Functional Considerations for Targeted Electrical Therapies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Review
- Organization of the Thermal Grill Illusion by Spinal Segments.Annals of neurology · 2018Article
- Sex differences in thermal detection and thermal pain threshold and the thermal grill illusion: a psychophysical study in young volunteers.Biology of sex differences · 2017Article
- Novel Air Stimulation MR-Device for Intraoral Quantitative Sensory Cold Testing.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2016Article
- Ionic mechanisms of spinal neuronal cold hypersensitivity in ciguatera.The European journal of neuroscience · 2015Article
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- Review
- Article
- Supraspinal characterization of the thermal grill illusion with fMRI.Molecular pain · 2014Article
- Rumination and interoceptive accuracy predict the occurrence of the thermal grill illusion of pain.BMC psychology · 2014Article
- Rise of the sensors: nociception and pruritus.Current allergy and asthma reports · 2012Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPerceptual illusions play an important role in untangling neural mechanisms underlying conscious phenomena. The thermal grill illusion (TGI) has been suggested as a promising model for exploring percepts involved in neuropathic pain, such as cold-allodynia (pain arising from contact with innocuous cold). The TGI is an unpleasant/painful sensation from touching juxtapositioned bars of cold and warm innocuous temperatures.
aimTo develop an MRI-compatible TGI-unit and explore the supraspinal correlates of the illusion, using fMRI, in a group of healthy volunteers.
methodsWe constructed a TGI-thermode allowing the rapid presentation of warm(41°C), cold(18°C) and interleaved(41°C+18°C = TGI) temperatures in an fMRI-environment. Twenty volunteers were tested. The affective-motivational ("unpleasantness") and sensory-disciminatory ("pain-intensity") dimensions of each respective stimulus were rated. Functional images were analyzed at a corrected α-level <0.05.
resultsThe TGI was rated as significantly more unpleasant and painful than stimulation with each of its constituent temperatures. Also, the TGI was rated as significantly more unpleasant than painful. Thermal stimulation versus neutral baseline revealed bilateral activations of the anterior insulae and fronto-parietal regions. Unlike its constituent temperatures the TGI displayed a strong activation of the right (contralateral) thalamus. Exploratory contrasts at a slightly more liberal threshold-level also revealed a TGI-activation of the right mid/anterior insula, correlating with ratings of unpleasantness (rho = 0.31). CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fMRI-study of the TGI. The activation of the anterior insula is consistent with this region's putative role in processing of homeostatically relevant feeling-states. Our results constitute the first neurophysiologic evidence of thalamic involvement in the TGI. Similar thalamic activity has previously been observed during evoked cold-allodynia in patients with central neuropathic pain. Our results further the understanding of the supraspinal correlates of the TGI-phenomenon and pave the way for future inquiries into if and how it may relate to neuropathic pain.
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