They suggested that both touch and pain afferent fibres synapse on to 'projection cells' and inhibitory interneurons in the dorsal horn.
[2] The neurons are multimodal (respond to both touch and pain input), with an inhibitory surround receptive field.
Research shows that there both acute and chronic pain perception is influenced by touch, with both psychophysical changes and differences in brain activation.
[9] Individuals suffering from chronic pain tend to show reduced tactile sensitivity in the affected area.
If patients are trained on the task of discriminating between two tactile points, it is shown that participants report reduced intensity of chronic pain.