Herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 (HSV-1) enters nerve endings during a primary infection, is transported to sensory ganglia, and establishes latency within nuclei of a subpopulation of neurons. The latent state is characterized by absence of detectable HSV-1 antigen, minimal transcription of productive cycle genes, and high expression of 1.5- and 2-kb viral transcripts, termed the major latenc...

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common entrapment neuropathy of the median nerve characterized by paresthesias and pain in the first, second, and third digits. We hypothesize that aberrant afferent input in CTS will lead to cortical plasticity. Functional MRI (fMRI) and neurophysiological testing were performed on CTS patients and healthy adults. Median nerve innervated digit 2 (D2), and digi...

The present study was conducted to examine psychophysiological differences in arousability among individuals who display impulsive aggressive outbursts. Amplitude and latency for the mid-latency evoked potentials (P1, N1 and P2) were obtained at scalp electrode sites. The evoking stimuli were three intensities (low, medium, high) of photic stimulation. Compared to non-aggressive controls, impul...

Nerve conduction and somatosensory evoked potential studies were undertaken on 46 workers exposed to a combination of organic and inorganic lead. In addition electroencephalograms were carried out on 20 of the workers; the results were compared with those obtained for workers not exposed to lead. The workers exposed to lead had a mean blood lead concentration of 2.35 mumol/l (48.7 micrograms/10...

BACKGROUND Needle EMG may be negative in mild or predominantly sensory lumbosacral radiculopathies. In such cases, an increase in the latency of the soleus H-reflex is a useful diagnostic criterion for establishing sensory fiber compromise at the S1 root level. However, if clinical signs of radicular involvement are lacking, the latency of the H-reflex is normal. We therefore studied the recrui...

Whisker movements are used by rodents to touch objects in order to extract spatial and textural tactile information about their immediate surroundings. To understand the mechanisms of such active sensorimotor processing it is important to investigate whisker motor control. The activity of neurons in the neocortex affects whisker movements, but many aspects of the organization of cortical whiske...

Previously, we reported that nerve growth factor (NGF) is required to maintain herpes simplex virus (HSV) latency in cultures of rat sympathetic neurons (Wilcox and Johnson, 1987, 1988). Here, we extend these results by showing that NGF was also required to maintain HSV latency in cultures of sensory neurons obtained from dorsal root ganglia of rats, monkeys, and humans. The interruption of the...

OBJECTIVE To determine utility of comparative electrophysiological techniques in differentiating carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in the background of diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN). DESIGN Ninety diabetic patients were classified into three groups: normal, CTS, and DPN according to nerve conduction studies (NCSs). The patients in the DPN group were divided into two subgroups of DPN and DPN-CTS ac...

Fast sensory processing is vital for the animal to efficiently respond to the changing environment. This is usually achieved when the animal is vigilant, as reflected by cortical desynchronization. However, the neural substrate for such fast processing remains unclear. Here, we report that neurons in rat primary visual cortex (V1) exhibited shorter response latency in the desynchronized state t...

The response of many neurons in the whisker somatosensory system depends on the direction in which a whisker is deflected. Although it is known that the spike count conveys information about this parameter, it is not known how important spike timing might be. The aim of this study was to compare neural codes based on spike count and first-spike latency, respectively. We extracellularly recorded...