= Sherrie De Ocampo
{c}
<Sherrie De Ocampo> is the first author of a 2007 study connecting sensory reports during expansion of the <rectum> with measured anal motor responses. The investigators increased the volume of a balloon step by step in 23 healthy participants, recorded <pressure> using a six-sensor probe, and asked about fullness and the desire to defecate. This combined a controlled mechanical stimulus, an objective motor measurement and a subjective sensory report.<Rectoanal sensorimotor response in humans during rectal distension by Sherrie De Ocampo and others>[abstract, Purpose and Methods]{ref}
All participants exhibited the <rectoanal inhibitory reflex> and a contractile reflex. The response associated with perception was an anal contraction: its first occurrence coincided with fullness in four participants and with the desire to defecate in nineteen. This distinction matters experimentally: a <pressure> decrease associated with the <rectoanal inhibitory reflex> and a perception-associated <pressure> increase describe different responses. The observations established an association between sensation and motor activity in this experiment; they did not make a <pressure> trace a direct readout of conscious sensation.<Rectoanal sensorimotor response in humans during rectal distension by Sherrie De Ocampo and others>[abstract, Results and Conclusions]{ref}
Back to article page