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It is still unclear whether the quality of painful thermal sensation is determined only by conduction in speci®c, dedicated nociceptive channels (i.e. C or Ad nociceptors) or whether it is a result of integrated activity in both nociceptive and non-nociceptive systems. To evaluate this question, we conducted quantitative and qualitative somatosensory testing in spinal cord injury subjects who suffered from partial or complete loss of thermal sensibility. Testing was performed in skin areas, below the level of the lesion, which were either lacking any thermal sensibility, lacking only one thermal sensation (either heat or cold) or having normal thermal sensa-tions. We found that, in areas lacking any thermal sens-ibility, warm and cold stimuli produced a sensation of pricking pain, which had no thermal quality and wa