Suppressive Effect of Thermal Stimulation on The Jaw-opening Reflex Evaluated by Single Subject Design. Application of C-statistic as a simple time series analysis / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

Suppressive effects of thermal stimulation of the tail on the jaw opening reflex were examined by the reversal design of single subject designs (SSD) in an urethane anesthetized rat. The results were evaluated by visual inspections of the graphs of moving averaged data and by C statistic as a simple time series analysis. The digastric evoked EMGs elicited by electrical stimulation of the gingiva (1.5x threshold intensity, 0.2Hz) had stable latency and biphasic wave form. Clear suppression of the JOR during thermal stimulation of 54°C for 30s was found by the visual inspection. The calculated C statistics based of 12 data of that of before and during thermal stimulation showed significant trends (p<0.05).<br>On the other hand, no significant trends were observed in baseline period and the data of 32°C thermal stimulation, and they were in agreement with the results of visual inspections.<br>These results indicate the noxious thermal stimulation activate the endogenous pain inhibitory mechanisms then induces analgesic effects, and the similar mechanisms were suggested to be participated in acupuncture or moxibustion stimulation-induced analgesia. Moreover the fact that evaluations by the C statistics agreed with the visual inspection suggests the validity of C statistic for evaluating the time series data in the SSD.