pain wind-up

{{Short description|Perception of pain}}

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.{{cite book|author1=Feng Xu|author2=Tianjian Lu|title=Introduction to Skin Biothermomechanics and Thermal Pain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMggKzt8ofoC&pg=PA347|accessdate=25 April 2012|date=29 May 2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-642-13201-8|page=347}}Pitcher and Henry (2000). Eur. J. Neurosci., 12:2006–2020. It describes an exponentially progressive increase in firing of WDR neurons with repeated stimulation.