Pain wind-up explained

Pain wind-up is the increase in pain intensity over time when a given stimulus is delivered repeatedly above a critical rate. It is caused by repeated stimulation of group C peripheral nerve fibers, leading to progressively increasing electrical response in the corresponding spinal cord (posterior horn) neurons due to priming of the NMDA receptor based response.[1] [2] It describes an exponentially progressive increase in firing of WDR neurons with repeated stimulation.

References

  1. Book: Feng Xu. Tianjian Lu. Introduction to Skin Biothermomechanics and Thermal Pain. 25 April 2012. 29 May 2011. Springer. 978-3-642-13201-8. 347.
  2. Pitcher and Henry (2000). Eur. J. Neurosci., 12:2006–2020.