Accepted. 2300 char max (not incl. spaces) - 500 for figure = 1800 San Diego or bust. Temporal characteristics of cold pain perception. Mark S. Bolding, Jon Grossman, Luke Stoeckel and Michael A. Frölich The cold pressor task (CPT) is an experimental technique for inducing pain in humans (Wolf and Hardy, 1941). Recently, the cerebral representation of cold pain has been investigated using block design fMRI (Seifert and Maihofner, 2007; Davis et al., 1998). However, it is not clear whether cold pain perception follows the boxcar function assumed in a block design. Therefore, we studied how human volunteers rate the sensation of cold vs. tepid blocks over time. After obtaining informed consent, human volunteers had their right foot immersed alternately in ice water or tepid water. Participants used an electronic slide algometer to continuously rate the intensity of their cold perception. The rating was re...