A novel interaction in human thermal processing

<h3>Background</h3> Multiple sensory pathways in our nervous system enable us to process multimodal stimuli in our environment. Interactions between various sensory pathways have been the subject of much research. However, the difficulty of delivering a pure cold stimulation without the confound of touch has prevented the investigation of an interaction between touch and cold. In this study, we describe a novel method of pure cold stimulation with the presence and absence of touch. <h3>Methods</h3> This study utilised dry ice as our pure cold stimulus and monofilaments to deliver a separate tactile stimulus. By measuring the thresholds for detecting cold stimuli in participants with and without touch, we are able to determine the effect of touch on thermal processing in a Signal Detection Theory paradigm. <h3>Results</h3> Our main finding is that touch inhibits processing of cold stimuli. The performance in trials where cold is paired with touch is significantly lower than when cold is delivered alone. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Our results should be considered preliminary as only 6 datasets were included in the analysis. However, this study presents a novel method of stimulation we hope future studies will improve and apply to larger cohorts to validate our initial findings.