Peripheral and spinal mechanisms of somatic and visceral pain

• Main Author: Cervero, Fernando
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1992
• Subjects: 612.8
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.642695

<i>i) Dorsal horn mechanisms of somatic sensation and the role of the superficial dorsal horn in nociception and pain</i>. These are 20 research papers dealing with the input properties and central modulation of neurones in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Particular attention was paid to cells driven by nociceptive cutaneous afferents and to the electrophysiological properties of superficial dorsal horn neurones. These papers include the first descriptions of the cutaneous inputs to and spinal modulation of neurones in the Marginal Zone and Substantia Gelatinosa of the spinal cord. There are also papers dealing with the encoding of nociceptive stimuli by dorsal horn cells and with the supraspinal control of the transmission of nociceptive messages through the spinal cord. These studies led to the formulation of a new proposal about pain mechanisms which is discussed in the last publication of this group. <i>ii) The neurotoxic actions of capsaicin on somatic and visceral nociceptive mechanisms</i>. This is a group of 11 papers published between 1981 and 1991. The main aim of these studies was to analyse the reorganisation of somatosensory systems in the rat dorsal horn that occurs following the neonatal destruction of most afferent C-fibres with the neurotoxin capsaicin. These papers describe the neurological deficits induced by the lack of afferent C-fibres and the compensatory changes in central inhibitory mechanisms that occur in the spinal cord. These studies led to the proposal that CNS inhibitory systems develop as a direct response to the presence of powerful excitatory drives from the periphery, particularly those mediated by afferent C-fibres.