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: The lack of responsiveness of these neurons to a variety of arousal/stress manipulations supports the hypothesis that dopaminergic neurons play a permissive, rather than an active, role in these processes.
115 citations
TL;DR: The posterior insula of the human brain this paper represents the main sensory receiving area of the spinothalamic system, and as such contributes to the processing of thermo-sensory, nociceptive, C-fibre tactile, and visceral input.
Abstract: Summary To be considered specific for nociception, a cortical region should: (a) have plausible connections with ascending nociceptive pathways; (b) be activated by noxious stimuli; (c) trigger nociceptive sensations if directly stimulated; and (d) tone down nociception when injured. In addition, lesions in this area should have a potential to develop neuropathic pain, as is the case of all lesions in nociceptive pathways. The single cortical region approaching these requirements in humans encompasses the suprasylvian posterior insula and its adjoining medial operculum (referred to as “PIMO” in this review). This region does not contain, however, solely nociceptive networks, but represents in primates the main sensory receiving area of the spinothalamic system, and as such contributes to the processing of thermo-sensory, nociceptive, C-fibre tactile, and visceral input. Nociception (and, a fortiori, pain) should therefore not be considered as a separate sensory modality, like vision or audition, but rather as one component of a global system subtending the most primitive forms of somatosensation. Although a clear functional segregation of PIMO sub-areas has not yet been achieved, some preferential distribution has been described in humans: pain-related networks appear preferentially distributed within the posterior insula, and non-noxious thermal processing in the adjacent medial operculum. Thus, spinothalamic sub-modalities may be partially segregated in the PIMO, in analogy with the separate representation of dorsal column input from joint, muscle spindle and tactile afferents in S1. Specificity, however, may not wholly depend on ascending ‘labelled lines’ but also on cortical network properties driven by intrinsic and extrinsic circuitry. Given its particular anatomo-functional properties, thalamic connections, and tight relations with limbic and multisensory cortices, the PIMO region deserves to be considered as a third somatosensory region (S3) devoted to the processing of spinothalamic inputs.
115 citations
TL;DR: Visual and somatosensory potentials were recorded by electronic averaging of 500–1000 responses in 50 unconscious, artificially respirated patients without cortical activity above 2 μV in the EEG to provide reliable evidence of brain death in unconscious, unresponsive patients.
114 citations
TL;DR: The transducer molecules responsible for responses to nociceptive, thermal or chemical stimuli are now becoming known, including a series of TRP (transient receptor potential) receptor molecules, such as TRPV1 (the capsaicin receptor).
114 citations
TL;DR: The results obtained in this study are consistent with the conclusion that 5-HT has a profound, but developmentally transient, presynaptic inhibitory effect upon thalamocortical transmission in the rat's somatosensory cortex.
Abstract: 1. Recent immunocytochemical and receptor binding data have demonstrated a transient somatotopic patterning of serotonin (5-HT)-immunoreactive fibers in the primary somatosensory cortex of developi...
114 citations