Deck 8: Touch and Pain

Question 1

Pacinian corpuscles are sensitive to which range of frequencies?

A) 0 Hz
B) 0-5 Hz
C) 10-30 Hz
D) 40-400 Hz

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Meissner's corpuscles are found:

A) In the epidermis
B) At the junction between the dermis and the epidermis
C) In the subcutaneous fat
D) In the hair follicles

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Ruffini corpuscles are active:

A) During vibration of the limb
B) During skin stretching, as when a finger is moved
C) In fine texture perception
D) During pattern perception

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Merkel discs:

A) Have small receptive fields and adapt quickly
B) Have large receptive fields and adapt quickly
C) Have large receptive fields and adapt slowly
D) Have small receptive fields and adapt slowly

Question 5

The spatial resolution of the skin is highest on the:

A) Shoulder
B) Back
C) Upper lip
D) Calf

Question 6

The temporal resolution of the finger-tip is about:

A) 20 ms
B) 10 ms
C) 40 ms
D) 50 ms

Question 7

Generally, in studies of spatial resolution with the finger, participants cannot discriminate grating orientation until separations exceed:

A) 0.1 mm
B) 0.5 mm
C) 1.0 mm
D) 2.0 mm

Question 8

Which are these areas does not mediate the tactile perception of roughness?

A) Parietal operculum
B) Insula
C) Posterior parietal cortex
D) Inferior temporal cortex

Question 9

In S1, to which of these body regions is most cortex devoted?

A) Pharynx
B) Fingers
C) Lower lip
D) Forearm

Question 10

Sensory saltation in the cutaneous rabbit paradigm refers to:

A) Spatial uncertainty about the location of the taps
B) Perceived shifts or jumps of each stimulus toward one another
C) Inhibition of the neural effects of one tap on the neural effects of another
D) Cross-modal effects (e.g. more robust illusion when congruent visual flash is presented with series of taps)

Question 11

Which of the following has not been used to measure pain?

A) Heart rate
B) Blood viscosity
C) Analog scale
D) Questionnaire

Question 12

To which of the following do polymodal nociceptors not respond?

A) Temperatures above 45 deg C
B) Cutting and pinching
C) Intra-cellular compounds such as ATP
D) Stroking

Question 13

A $\delta$ fibres:

A) Are unmyelinated
B) Conduct slowly
C) Mediate sharp pain
D) Mediate dull aches

Question 14

Pain-evoked hypoalgesia is:

A) Sensation of nausea caused by pain
B) Exaggeration of pain triggered by more than one site
C) Reduction in the effectiveness of drugs which reduce pain
D) Inhibition of pain sensations caused by application of a painful stimulus elsewhere on the body

Question 15

Which of the following has NOT been proposed to explain less sensitivity to pain in men compared with women:

A) Hairs on skin providing protection again painful stimuli
B) A $\delta$ fibres are more sensitive in females
C) Sex differences in central processing of repetitive nociceptive stimuli
D) Effects of distraction from pain are larger in men

Question 16

Which of the following is not thought to be involved in the perception of pain?

A) Peri-aqueductal gray
B) Superior parietal lobule
C) S1
D) Insula

Question 17

The open-hidden paradigm in pain research has demonstrated:

A) inert medicines administered to patients who believe they have pain-killing actions can reduce patients' reported pain levels
B) inert medicines administered to patients who are told that the treatments are placebos can reduce patients' reported pain levels
C) hidden administration of an analgesic medication diminishes patient response
D) uncontrollable noxious stimuli are perceived by patients as more painful than controllable stimuli

Question 18

The 'body-self neuromatrix' theory of pain does NOT explain:

A) Why uncontrollable noxious stimuli are perceived as more painful than controllable stimuli?
B) Why distraction can alleviate pain?
C) Why some people have more empathy for pain than others?
D) Why high catastrophizers experience more severe phantom limb pain?

Question 19

Pain in phantom limbs is likely to be caused by:

A) Imagining by the sufferer that the limb is still attached
B) Irritation by changes in the scar
C) Aberrant signalling through the spinothalamic tract
D) Sensitization of thalamic neurons

Question 20

Tactile allodynia refers to which of the following:

A) Pain experienced in the absence of identified noxious stimuli
B) Enhanced pain in response to repetitive, low-frequency noxious stimuli
C) Pain that persists for beyond the period of healing of the original injury
D) Increased pain response evoked by stimuli outside the area of injury

Question 21

Merkel discs are sensitive to which range of frequencies?

A) <5 Hz
B) 10-50 Hz
C) 55-100 Hz
D) >100 Hz

Question 22

Pacinian corpuscles are found

A) In the dermis
B) In the subcutaneous tissue below the dermis
C) In the epidermis
D) In the muscle spindles

Question 23

Meissner's corpuscles:

A) Have small receptive fields and adapt quickly
B) Have large receptive fields and adapt quickly
C) Have large receptive fields and adapt slowly
D) Have small receptive fields and adapt slowly

Question 24

The duplex theory of texture perception proposes that:

A) Textures are perceived using both vision and touch
B) Fine textures are perceived with two kinds of receptor
C) Coarse textures are perceived via spatial, fine textures via temporal mechanisms
D) Textures feel different with the back and front of the hand

Question 25

Which of these was not one of the exploratory procedures suggested by Lederman and Klatzky (1987) that are used when recognising objects by touch?

A) Static contact
B) Enclosure
C) Contour following
D) Rotating

Question 26

High threshold mechanoreceptors in the skin respond to:

A) Pinching and cutting
B) Stroking
C) Temperature change
D) Chemicals

Question 27

C fibres:

A) Are unmyelinated
B) Conduct slowly
C) Mediate stabbing pain
D) Are not found in glabrous skin

Question 28

The anterior cingulate cortex is thought to mediate:

A) The emotional response to pain
B) The cognitive assessment of pain
C) Memory for pain
D) Pain-avoiding movements

Question 29

Gate control theory is consistent with:

A) The analgesic effect of codeine
B) Pain in phantom limbs
C) Genetically determined absence of pain sensations
D) Placebo effect in pain relief

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of central sensitisation?

A) Psychogenic pain responding
B) Hypersensitivity to noxious stimuli
C) Responsiveness to non-noxious stimuli
D) Increased pain response evoked by stimuli outside the area of injury

Question 31

What methods have been used to investigate active and passive touch? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Question 32

How is the amount of somatosensory cortex devoted to a body area related to its tactile sensitivity?

Question 33

How does familiarity of objects in studies of tactile shape perception affect the neural processes involved?

Question 34

Why do women show greater sensitivity to pain than men?

Question 35

How can pain be reduced by, for example, the belief that a treatment has an analgesic effect, even when it does not?