New electrophysiological procedures emerged within the last years, which are capable of assessing nerve fiber function loss objectively.  Some of these procedures, such as the somatosensory-evoked potentials (measurement of touch mediating fibres) or the laser-evoked potentials (measurement of heat pain mediation fibres) are used in clinical routine. Other procedures, such as warm-evoked potentials, pinprick-evoked potentials or cold-evoked potentials are investigated in scientific laboratories in order to improve the understanding of the signal processing of different nerve fiber sub-classes in the central nervous system.

The aim of the present project is the electrophysiological assessment of all known nerve fiber modalities with evoked potentials. Different stimulus modalities (e.g. touch, heat, cold, warm) will be applied and stimulus-specific signals will be recorded and analysed with EEG.

Figure 2: Example of a somatosensory profile including most relevant nerve fiber modalities.