The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in the affective and motivational aspect of pain perception. Behavioral studies show a decreased avoidance behavior to noxious stimuli without change in mechanical threshold after stimulation of the ACC. However, as part of the neural circuitry of behavioral reflexes, there is no evidence showing that ACC stimulation alters dorsal horn neuronal re...

BACKGROUND Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) frequently develop a dry, irritating cough which often proves refractory to anti-tussive therapies. The precise pathogenetic mechanisms responsible for this cough are unknown. We hypothesised that changes in nerves modulating mechanical sensitivity in areas of interstitial fibrosis might lead to enhanced cough response to mechanical s...

background and aim: tinnitus is an auditory phantom percept in the absence of any objective physical sound source. although advances have been made in its treatment, there is very low percent of patients that report an elimination of their tinnitus. a novel approach using noninv­asive neuromodulation has emerged as an inter­esting and promising modality for tinnitus relief. our aim in this revi...

Mechanical stimulation of a single cell in an airway epithelial culture initiates an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) that propagates from cell to cell as an intercellular Ca2+ wave. These Ca2+ waves appear to require an increase in intracellular inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) concentration ([IP3]i) in the stimulated cell and are propagated between cells by the diffusi...

Extracellular ATP released via pannexin-1 channels, in response to the activation of mechanosensitive-TRP channels during odontoblast mechanical stimulation, mediates intercellular communication among odontoblasts in dental pulp slice preparation dissected from rat incisor. Recently, odontoblast cell lines, such as mouse odontoblast lineage cells, have been widely used to investigate physiologi...

BACKGROUND Behavioral criteria that confirm neuropathic pain in animal injury models are undefined. Therefore, the authors sought clinically relevant measures that distinguish pain behavior of rats with peripheral nerve injury from those with sham injury. METHODS The authors examined mechanical and thermal sensory sensitivity, comparing responses at baseline to responses after spinal nerve li...

Nociceptive plasticity and central sensitization within the spinal cord depend on neurobiological mechanisms implicated in learning and memory in higher neural systems, suggesting that the factors that impact brain-mediated learning and memory could modulate how stimulation affects spinal systems. One such factor is temporal regularity (predictability). The present paper shows that intermittent...

The vasoactive mediator, endothelin-1, elicits a novel form of hyperalgesia, stimulation-dependent hyperalgesia. Acting on its cognate receptor on the vascular endothelial cell, endothelin-1 produces a state in which mechanical stimulation now elicits release of pronociceptive mediators from endothelium that, in turn, acts at receptors on sensory neurons. The only evidence that octoxynol-9, a s...

Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in response to painful laser stimuli were measured in a patient with a unilateral sensory deficit due to radiculopathy at cervical levels C7 and C8. Laser evoked potentials (LEPs) were compared with SEPs using standard electrical stimulation of median and ulnar nerves at the wrist and mechanical stimulation of the fingertips by means of a mechanical stimul...

RATIONALE The aim of our study was to assess the changes in the fronto-parietal connectivity estimated by the cross approximate entropy (XAppEn) during noxious stimulation while under chloral hydrate anaesthesia, in rats. METHOD A group of 11 Wistar rats chronically implanted with Ni-Cr electrodes, which were placed on the dura mater of the right hemisphere (over the olfactory cortex, the fro...