Topic
Somatosensory system
About: Somatosensory system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6371 publications have been published within this topic receiving 316900 citations.
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TL;DR: It is suggested that increased 5HT concentrations might have an effect on thalamocortical inputs and/or cortical lamination of the developing brains.
Abstract: Postnatal serotonin (5HT) innervation in the cerebral cortex of mice has been studied by 5HT immunohistochemistry. 5HT-like immunoreactive (5HT-LI) nerve fibers and terminals appeared to increase transiently, particularly in the somatosensory (Sm) cortex during early postnatal days. As pups grow, 5HT afferent inputs decreased rapidly to reach a similar pattern of distribution to that in adult animals. Since the transient increase was seen at a critical period (seventh postnatal day) for the differentiation of layer IV, it is suggested that increased 5HT concentrations might have an effect on thalamocortical inputs and/or cortical lamination of the developing brains.
135 citations
TL;DR: Results suggest that three distinct spinothalamocortical pathways are capable of relaying nociceptive information to the hand somatosensory cortex.
Abstract: This study examined anatomic pathways that are likely to transmit noxious and thermal cutaneous information to the primary somatosensory cortex. Anterograde and retrograde labeling techniques were combined to investigate the relationship between spinothalamic (STT) projections and thalamocortical neurons in the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). Large injections of diamidino yellow (DY) were placed in the physiologically defined hand region of primary somatosensory cortex (hSI), and wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) was injected in the contralateral cervical enlargement (C5T1). Both DY-labeled neuronal cell bodies and HRP-labeled STT terminal-like structures were visualized within single thalamic sections in each animal. Quantitative analysis of the positions and numbers of retrogradely labeled neurons and anterogradely labeled terminal fields reveal that: (1) ventral posterior lateral (VPL), ventral posterior inferior (VPI), and central lateral (CL), combined, receive 87% of spinothalamic inputs originating from the cervical enlargement; (2) these three nuclei contain over 91% of all thalamocortical neurons projecting to hSI that are likely to receive STT input; and (3) these putatively contacted neurons account for less than 24% of all thalamic projections to hSI. These results suggest that three distinct spinothalamocortical pathways are capable of relaying nociceptive information to the hand somatosensory cortex. Moreover, only a small portion of thalamocortical neurons are capable of relaying STT-derived nociceptive and thermal information to the primary somatosensory cortex.
134 citations
TL;DR: The architectural pattern of glucose utilization in the cortex during focal seizures is discussed with reference to corticocortical, commissural, and corticothalamic circuits that have been identified by others in anatomical studies.
134 citations
TL;DR: The proposed cortico-prefronto-basalo-cortical circuitry may have an important role in cortical plasticity and selective attention.
134 citations
TL;DR: Physiological observations suggest that one function of somatosensory input to the auditory system is to suppress responses to "expected" body-generated sounds such as vocalization or respiration, which would serve to enhance responses to 'unexpected' externally- generated sounds, such as the vocalizations of other animals.
134 citations