Journal ArticleDOI
Abnormal single-unit activity recorded in the somatosensory thalamus of a quadriplegic patient with central pain.
Frederick A. Lenz,R.R. Tasker,Jonathan O. Dostrovsky,Hon C. Kwan,John Gorecki,Teruyasu Hirayama,J. T. Murphy +6 more
TLDR
The results suggest that regions of thalamus which have lost their normal somatosensory input contain neurons which exhibit abnormal spontaneous and evoked activity and that electrical stimulation of these regions can produce the sensation of burning dysesthesia.Abstract:
We have performed single unit analysis of the activity of cells located in the ventral nuclear group of thalamus in a patient with dysesthetic pain below the level of a clinically complete traumatic spinal cord transection at C5. Cells located in the parasagittal plane 14 mm lateral to the midline responded to tactile stimulation in small facial and intraoral receptive fields, which were characteristic of patients without somatosensory abnormality [30]. In this patient the 16 mm lateral parasagittal plane contained cells with receptive fields located on the occiput and neck instead of the upper extremity as would normally be expected. Cells with receptive fields on the neck and occiput had not previously been observed in recordings from single units (n = 531) responding to somatosensory stimulation [30]. Thus, on the basis of their location in a region of thalamus which normally represents parts of the body below the level of the spinal cord transection and their unusual receptive fields adjacent to these same parts of the body, we propose that the cells in the 16 mm lateral plane have lost their normal afferent input. Analysis of the autopower spectra of spike trains indicates that cells in the 16 mm lateral plane exhibited a higher mean firing rate and greater tendency to fire in bursts than cells in the 14 mm lateral plane (Pread more
Citations
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The Biopsychosocial Approach to Chronic Pain: Scientific Advances and Future Directions
TL;DR: A review of the basic neuroscience processes of pain (the bio part of biopsychosocial, as well as the psychosocial factors, is presented) and on the development of new technologies, such as brain imaging, that provide new insights into brain-pain mechanisms.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contribution of central neuroplasticity to pathological pain: review of clinical and experimental evidence
TL;DR: This review examines the clinical and experimental evidence which points to a contribution of central Neurol plasticity to the development of pathological pain, and assesses the physiological, biochemical, cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie plasticity induced in the central nervous system in response to noxious peripheral stimulation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neurophysiological evaluation of pain
Burkhart Bromm,Jürgen Lorenz +1 more
TL;DR: Particular emphasis is put upon laser-evoked potentials and their application for diagnosis, pathophysiological description and monitoring of patients with neurological disorders and abnormal pain states.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neuropathic Pain: From Mechanisms to Treatment
TL;DR: Neuropathic pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system is a common chronic pain condition with major impact on quality of life and the major classes of therapeutics include drugs acting on α2 δsubunits of calcium channels, sodium channels, and descending modulatory inhibitory pathways.
Journal ArticleDOI
Pain matrices and neuropathic pain matrices: A review
Luis Garcia-Larrea,Roland Peyron +1 more
TL;DR: The pain matrix is conceptualised here as a fluid system composed of several interacting networks, including posterior parietal, prefrontal and anterior insular areas, which ensures the bodily specificity of pain and is the only one whose destruction entails selective pain deficits.
References
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Autotomy following peripheral nerve lesions: experimental anaesthesia dolorosa.
P. D. Wall,Marshall Devor,Marshall Devor,R. Inbal,R. Inbal,J. W. Scadding,J. W. Scadding,D. Schonfeld,D. Schonfeld,Z. Seltzer,Z. Seltzer,M. M. Tomkiewicz,M. M. Tomkiewicz +12 more
TL;DR: The time course and degree of autotomy following various types of nerve injury in rats and mice is described and reasons are given to propose that autotomy is triggered by an abnormal afferent barrage generated in the cut end of the nerve.
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The reorganization of somatosensory cortex following peripheral nerve damage in adult and developing mammals
Journal ArticleDOI
Formation of new connexions in adult rat brains after partial deafferentation.
Patrick D. Wall,M. D. Egger +1 more
TL;DR: Mapping of the receptive fields of cells in the thalamus and cortex after section of the dorsal columns in the rat reveals evidence of functional reorganization in the central nervous system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Chronic Deafferentation of Human Spinal Cord Neurons
TL;DR: It is the hypothesis that many of the central pain states that occur after nerve or spinal cord injury may be due to chronic deafferentation and subsequent hyperactivity at the segmental level.
Journal ArticleDOI
Chronic changes in the response of cells in adult cat dorsal horn following partial deafferentation: The appearance of responding cells in a previously nonresponsive region
Allan I. Basbaum,Patrick D. Wall +1 more
TL;DR: It was concluded that following partial de Afferentation, the remaining afferents can establish connection with deafferented cells but the data presented did not allow a conclusion as to whether the new connections were produced by sprouting or by the unmasking of existing connections.