Cold evoked potentials elicited by rapid cooling of the skin in young and elderly healthy individuals

Cold-evoked potentials (CEPs) constitute a novel electrophysiological tool to assess cold-specific alterations in somatosensory function. As an important step towards the clinical implementation of CEPs as a diagnostic tool, we evaluated the feasibility and reliability of CEPs in response to rapid cooling of the skin (−300 °C/s) and different stimulation sites in young and elderly healthy individuals. Time-locked electroencephalographic responses were recorded from at vertex in fifteen young (20–40 years) and sixteen elderly (50–70 years), individuals in response to 15 rapid cold stimuli (−300 °C/s) applied to the skin of the hand dorsum, palm, and foot dorsum. High CEP proportions were shown for young individuals at all sites (hand dorsum/palm: 100% and foot: 79%) and elderly individuals after stimulation of the hand dorsum (81%) and palm (63%), but not the foot (44%). Depending on the age group and stimulation site, test–retest reliability was “poor” to “substantial” for N2P2 amplitudes and N2 latencies. Rapid cooling of the skin enables the recording of reliable CEPs in young individuals. In elderly individuals, CEP recordings were only robust after stimulation of the hand, but particularly challenging after stimulation of the foot. Further improvements in stimulation paradigms are warranted to introduce CEPs for clinical diagnostics.