What the IMF team shows is that as the share of national income devoted to profits and top pay rises to its current levels, so a noxious economic dynamic is created.
The somatosensory system, all of whose primary sensory neurons are of neural crest origin, is highly complex, innervating diverse peripheral tissues and encoding thermal, mechanical, and chemical modalities across a broad range of sensitivities, from innocuous to noxious with different dynamic ranges (Marmigere and Ernfors, 2007; Basbaum et al., 2009; Dubin and Patapoutian, 2010; Li et al., 2011).
Noxious cold tolerance was assessed using a dynamic cold plate (Bioseb, France) (Yalcin et al, 2009).
pERK1/2 can be used as a dynamic, rapid and robust marker of noxious stimulation, as ERK1/2 phosphorylation can occur within a minute [21].
Two hours after Dynamic test evaluation, the response to noxious thermal stimulus was determined using a Plantar Test Instrument (Hargreaves' method; Ugo Basile Biological Instruments, Comerio, Italy).
Within deeper lamina V, neurons are wide-dynamic range, responding to both innocuous and noxious stimuli, and so candidates for abnormal coding of low-threshold inputs and hence allodynia, exhibiting wind-up and projecting to sensory areas of the brain such as the thalamus and thence the cortex, where the sensory component of pain is represented (Fig. 2).
Nociceptive neurons in lamina V respond to both noxious and non-noxious mechanical stimuli and are termed 'wide dynamic range' neurons.
All the neurones recorded in this study were wide dynamic range neurones, because they all responded to both light touch and noxious inputs (pinch and noxious heat).
All neurons studied in the right VPL had receptive fields on the plantar region of the left (nerve-injured) hindpaw and responded to innocuous (7 g) and noxious (65 g) mechanical stimuli, indicating that these neurons were wide dynamic range neurons.
This is evidenced by alterations in measures of TMD pain patients' static pressure-pain threshold [ 5, 8], vibrotactile stimulation perception [ 4], and noxious heat threshold [ 9, 10], and by the results of dynamic suprathreshold tests involving temporal summation, such as the sub-maximal ischemic tourniquet test [ 2, 3] and the cold-pressor test [ 11].
