"...but in his last paper, at least Marineo finally figured out that if he stimulates a c-fiber, then the c-fiber ultimately stimulates a portion of the the brain that only knows how to say, "Ouch! Something HURTS!"...
...poor ol'Joe seems to have had the notion that nerves were like little telephone wires and that he could just dial in 1-800-NO-PAIN and everything would just suddenly feel better...too bad it's just a tad more complicated... "
I don't know what Marineo figured out, but from freshman physiology we learn that c-fibers are non-myelinated neurons that convey various sensory modalities, slow pain being only one. Most have the highest of thresholds for exogenous stimulation.
Many neuroscientists, going back several decades, have considered targeting c-fibers for stimulation with the hope of relieving pain. They don't focus on slow pain fibers. It is not feasible to stimulate only the slow pain fibers; most all c-fibers are stimulated with approximately the same amplitude of stimulation. It is plausible that the right frequency protocol could be successful at sending action potentials through some c-fibers to some pain matrix centers that could impact the pain percept, possibly through stimulation of enkephalin interneurons.
