The ion-channel TRPV1 is believed to be a major sensor of noxious heat, but surprisingly animals lacking TRPV1 still display marked responses to elevated temperature. In this study, we explored the role of TRPV1-expressing neurons in somatosensation by generating mice wherein this lineage of cells was selectively labelled or ablated. Our data show that TRPV1 is an embryonic marker of many nocic...

Rapid and efficient escape behaviors in response to noxious sensory stimuli are essential for protection and survival. Yet, how noxious stimuli are transformed to coordinated escape behaviors remains poorly understood. In Drosophila larvae, noxious stimuli trigger sequential body bending and corkscrew-like rolling behavior. We identified a population of interneurons in the nerve cord of Drosoph...

Normal cats were bilaterally vagotomized at cardiac level and submitted to a classical defensive conditioning using excitatory, inhibitory and differential stimuli. That group was compared with a normal one. Both groups showed an anticipatory bradycardia to the noxious excitatory stimulus and a late deceleration to the inhibitory stimuli. The experimental group presented more variable and labil...

Of the many factors which affect animal production, wildlife is one of the few which has rarely been considered by the Australian Society of Animal Production. A variety of non-domesticated mammals are closely associated with the livestock industries and those which cause production losses are referred to as vertebrate pests in this contract. In some States this definition is carried further by...

Recent studies have revealed that noxious visceral inputs travel in the dorsal column pathway, and interactions between colorectal noxious and tactile inputs occur in the ventrobasal thalamus. This investigation was to test whether the somatovisceral interactions also take place in the dorsal column nuclei (DCN). Forty-five single DCN neurons of anesthetized rats responsive to colorectal disten...

The effects of formalin as a peripheral noxious stimulus on the activity of lateral paragigantocellularis nucleus (LPGi) neurons were examined. Spontaneous activity ofLPGi neurons was recorded after confirmation of their responsiveness to acute pain, and thereafter formalin (50 µL, 2.5%) was injected in the contralateral hindpaw. The response of the LPGi neurons was monitored for 60 min. A...

In the present study, the effects of formalin as a peripheral noxious stimulus on spontaneously active units of the nucleus reticularis paragigantocellularis (PGi), a narrow region of the ventral pontine reticular formation, was examined in urethane anesthetized rats. Spontaneous discharge of the PGi neurons was variable, ranging from I to 37 spikes per second. Formalin as a chemical irrita...

Normally one expects that flame contact is the major cause of injury and death during fires. Analysis of the factors involved in numerous fires has revealed that most deaths were not due to flame contact, but were a consequence of the production of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and other combustion products, such as aldehydes, low molecular weight alcohols, hydrogen cyanide, and other noxio...

The administration of test substances into a single lung, or lung lobe, allows the remaining untreated lung to act as an experimental control and effectively halves the number of animals required in a given experiment. It reduces the likelihood of early fatal pulmonary failure when noxious substances are studied which may lessen the need for replacement animals. However, the ease of substance a...