足底测痛仪可使研究人员识别药物影响无束缚大鼠对外部热刺激的间接反应。基本上包含一个玻璃框下操作员可滑动的红外发生器，上方为可放置大鼠的三隔透明围箱。红外发生器内置的感知器可以探测到动物肢爪0.1秒的回撤。

The Plantar Test representsaremarkable advance in determination of acute nociceptivethermalthreshold in laboratory animals, as it combines the bestfeaturesof all other methods of measuring pain sensitivity. Uniqueto thePlantar Test, the animal is unrestrained and unhandledduringexperiments. The 37370 basically consists of a movable I.R.sourcewhich the operator glides below a glass pane, upon whicha3-compartment enclosure for rat is positioned. When the ratfeelspain and withdraws its paw, the instrument automaticallydetectsthe withdrawal latency to the nearest 0.1 s. The 37370 isamicroprocessor controlled unit. The experimental data canbedirectly exported to the PC USB or serial ports. Communicationismanaged by the dedicated CUB Data Acquisition SoftwarePackage,included as standard.