Background: Ketamine is a commonly used intravenous anesthetic which produces dissociation anesthesia, analgesia, and amnesia. The mechanism of ketamine-induced synaptic inhibition in high-level cortical areas is still unknown. We aimed to elucidate the effects of different concentrations of ketamine on the glutamatergic synaptic transmission of the neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex b...

were first studied by Zotterman in cats and suggested that knismesis is carried in part by pain fibers (21). C-fibers, unmyelinated afferents, are putatively involved in pleasurable touch in rodents (22). Central mechanisms of tickling were investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in human brains (9); that study, which used tickling stimuli evoking knismesis and observedsoma...

Human studies of brain stimulation have demonstrated modulatory effects on the perception of pain. However, whether the primary somatosensory cortical activity is associated with antinociceptive responses remains unknown. Therefore, we examined the antinociceptive effects of neuronal activity evoked by optogenetic stimulation of primary somatosensory cortex. Optogenetic transgenic mice were sub...

We examined acetylcholine (ACh) release in the frontal cortex and in the vibrissae representation in the somatosensory cortex in rats during the acquisition of a tactile discrimination or during nondiscrimination control procedures. Microdialysis samples were collected for 1 h in the home cage and then for the duration of 30 discrimination or control trials, across 5 consecutive days. Both grou...

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are regulated by homeostatic control mechanisms to maintain synaptic strength in a physiological range. Although homeostatic metaplasticity has been demonstrated in the human motor cortex, little is known to which extent it operates in other cortical areas and how it links to behavior. Here we tested homeostatic interactions between tw...

Little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of cortical responses that integrate slightly asynchronous somatosensory inputs from both hands. This study aimed to clarify the timing and magnitude of interhemispheric interactions during early integration of bimanual somatosensory information in different somatosensory regions and their relevance for bimanual object manipulation and explorati...

Glutamate transmission is critical for controlling cortical activity, but the specific contribution of the different isoforms of vesicular glutamate transporters in subcortical pathways to the neocortex is largely unknown. To determine the distribution and neocortical projections of vesicular glutamate transporter2 (Vglut2)-containing neurons, we used in situ hybridization and injections of the...