Principal Investigator:

Barry Green, PhD
Director and Fellow,
John B. Pierce Laboratory

Professor of Surgery (Otolaryngology)
Yale University School of Medicine

Research Interests

Research in this laboratory focuses on cutaneous and oral sensitivity in humans. Our approach is guided by the assumption that these sensitivities emerge from interactions within and among specialized but non-independent sensory pathways, and we use psychophysical methods to uncover and study these interactions.

Current Projects

Research topics currently under investigation include: spatial and temporal interactions among the senses of warmth, cold, and pain; the effects of temperature and touch on taste; the relationship of taste to chemesthesis, and the contribution of peripheral vs. central factors to individual differences in temperature and taste perception.

Representative Publications

Lim, J., Wood, A. and Green, B.G. Derivation and evaluation of a labeled hedonic scale. Chemical Senses 34: 739-754, 2009.

Green, B.G., Roman, C., Schoen, K. and Collins, H. Nociceptive sensations evoked from ‘spots’ in the skin by mild heating and cooling. Pain, 135: 196-208, 2008.

Green, B.G. (2004) Temperature perception and nociception. Journal of Neurobiology, 61: 13-29.

Green, B.G. and Pope, J.V. (2003) Innocuous cooling can produce nociceptive sensations that are inhibited during dynamic mechanical contact. Experimental Brain Research, 148, 290-299.

Green, B.G. (2002) Synthetic heat at mild temperatures. Somatosensory and Motor Research, 19, 130-138.

Green, B.G. and Zaharchuk, R. (2001) Spatial variation in sensitivity as a factor in measurements of spatial summation of warmth and cold. Somatosensory and Motor Research, 18, 181-190.

Cruz, A. and Green, B.G. (2000) Thermal stimulation of taste. Nature, 403, 889-892.