Mechanisms of thermal sensitivity in rodent primary afferent neurons innervating the skin

2 Declaration 4 Acknowledgments 5 Abstracts published during the PhD 6 Table on contents 7 List of figures and tables 9 Chapter 1: General Introduction 20 1.1 History of the study of sensation and pain 20 1.2 The study of thermal sensitivity 24 1.3 Afferent spinal pathways of thermal sensation 31 1.4 Cellular and molecular mechanisms underling cold sensitivity 33 1.5 Abnormal cold sensitivity in humans 35 1.6 Aims of the Study 37 Chapter 2: Methods and Materials 40 2.1 The skin nerve in vitro preparation 40 2.2 Saphenous and Tibial nerve dissection 41 2.3 Experimental set-up 42 2.4 Recording technique 43 2.5 Data acquisition 46 2.6 Data analysis and statistical tests 46 Chapter 3: Mouse primary afferent properties in hairy and glabrous skin 53 3.