Recent reports have suggested functional interactions between the masticatory and head motor systems. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms behind these phenomena have not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, the motor unit activity was recorded bilaterally from the dorsal neck splenius muscles (SPL) while the cell bodies of trigeminal afferent fibers were stimulated at either the ...

Neurons in ventromedial medulla, including the nucleus raphe magnus, project to trigeminal nucleus caudalis and, via the dorsolateral funiculus, to spinal dorsal horn. The terminals of this descending system are in loci containing cells responsive to noxious stimuli. Electrical stimulation of nucleus raphe magnus selectively inhibits spinal dorsal horn neurons that respond to noxious stimuli. T...

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of glycine in sensory processes in the spinal trigeminal nucleus oralis (Sp5O). We evaluated the effect of intravenous administration of strychnine, a glycine receptor antagonist, on the responses of Sp5O convergent neurons evoked by innocuous peripheral electrical and mechanical stimuli in halothane-anesthetized rats. Strychnine significantly i...

Detecting threats and escaping before serious confrontations are important for animals to avoid danger and death. Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), a member of the TRP superfamily, is expressed in a subset of sensory neurons and mediates nociception evoked by pungent chemicals. Using behavioral testing, we found that TRPA1 knockout mice failed to avoid entering a chamber filled wi...

The purpose of this review article is to explain how pacifier use might prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). After describing the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus description, we will discuss the effect of sleep during the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stage. We hypothesize that during NREM sleep, intense inhibitory neurotransmission by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and galanin from th...

introduction: appropriate thyroid hormone (th) levels are essential during the critical period of brain development, which is associated with the growth of axons and dendrites and synapse formation. in rats, oral motor circuits begin to reach to their adult pattern around 3 weeks after birth, the period in which alteration from sucking to biting and chewing occurs (weaning time). trigeminal mot...

Local cerebral blood flow (CBF) was determined in 30 cerebral structures, including four structures of the whisker-to-barrel cortex sensory pathway, by the quantitative autoradiographic [(14)C]iodoantipyrine method during unilateral vibrissal stimulation in rats administered 0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg haloperidol or its control vehicle intravenously. The low dose of haloperidol had no significant effects...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to localize the cell bodies of palisade endings that are associated with the myotendinous junctions of the extraocular muscles. METHODS Rhesus monkeys received tract-tracer injections (tetramethylrhodamine dextran [TMR-DA] or choleratoxin subunit B [CTB]) into the oculomotor and trochlear nuclei, which contain the motoneurons of extraocular muscles. All e...

A 43-year-old female presented with severe sharp stabbing right-sided periorbital and retroorbital area headache, dull-aching unilateral jaw pain, eyelid swelling, ptosis, and tearing of the right eye but no rash. The pain episodes lasted five minutes to one hour and occurred 10-15 times per day with unremitting milder pain between the attacks. She later developed an erythematous maculopapular ...

The present studies in the rat employed a combined retrograde transport-immunocytochemical technique to determine the origin in the brainstem of enkephalin (Enk) projections to spinal sympathetic nuclei, including the intermediolateralis nucleus, pars principalis (ILp). We found that Enk projections to the ILp nucleus are found in such serotonergic-containing areas as the raphe obscurus; raphe ...