Cortical processing of electrocutaneous stimuli in chronic stroke patients: a relationship with post-stroke shoulder pain.

Cerebral stroke is often associated with changes in cognitive-evaluative and somatosensory functions which may play a role in the development and maintenance of post-stroke pain. However, the precise mechanisms underlying post-stroke pain remain largely unclear. Knowledge of these mechanisms may be used to optimize prevention and treatment of post-stroke pain and may be obtained by neurophysiological assessment of cognitive and somatosensory functions using cortical evoked potentials (EPs). Latencies and amplitudes of EP components are regarded as a reflection of the function of spino-cortical tracts (N90 component) and of cognitive-evaluative processes (N150, P200, P300 components).