Experimental Measurement of Pain Stimulus Effects in Skin Impedance

Abstract

The work presented here validates the hypothesis that skin impedance is a suitable tool for assessing and quantifying nociceptor stimulation (i.e. mechanical and thermal pain stimulus) in awake healthy volunteers in a laboratory environment. The impedance exhibits interesting features such as constant phase, typical of fractional order systems. Additionally, for the first time in the research community, we were able to detect and report the existence of pain memory in skin tissue.