Previous studies showed noxious unilateral forepaw electrical stimulation surprisingly evoked negative blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and cerebral blood volume (CBV) fMRI responses in the bilateral striatum whereas the local neuronal spike and c-Fos activities increased. These negative responses are associated with vasoconstriction and appeared to override the increased hemodynamic responses that typically accompanied with increased neural activity. The current study aimed to investigate the role of μ-opioid system in modulating vasoconstriction in the striatum associated with noxious stimulation on a 4.7-Tesla MRI scanner. Specifically, we investigated: i) how morphine (a μ-opioid receptor agonist) affects the vasoconstriction in the bilateral striatum associated with noxious electrical forepaw stimulation in rats, and ii) how naloxone (an opioid receptor antagonist) and eticlopride (a dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor antagonist) modulates the morphine effects onwards. Injection of morphine enhanced the negative striatal CBV responses to noxious stimulation. Sequential injection of naloxone in the same animals abolished the stimulus-evoked vasoconstriction. In a separate group of animals, injection of eticlopride following morphine also reduced the vasoconstriction. Our findings suggested that noxious stimulation endogenously activated opioid and dopamine receptors in the striatum and thus leading to vasoconstriction.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2011.12.042 | DOI Listing |
Pain
January 2025
Integrative Spinal Research Group, Department of Chiropractic Medicine, Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Recent evidence highlights that monetary rewards can increase the precision at which healthy human volunteers can detect small changes in the intensity of thermal noxious stimuli, contradicting the idea that rewards exert a broad inhibiting influence on pain perception. This effect was stronger with contingent rewards compared with noncontingent rewards, suggesting a successful learning process. In the present study, we implemented a model comparison approach that aimed to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie thermal noxious discrimination in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCognition
January 2025
Institute of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8573, Japan. Electronic address:
Pain perception is not solely determined by noxious stimuli, but also varies due to other factors, such as beliefs about pain and its uncertainty. A widely accepted theory posits that the brain integrates prediction of pain with noxious stimuli, to estimate pain intensity. This theory assumes that the estimated pain value is adjusted to minimize surprise, mathematically defined as errors between predictions and outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly Hum Dev
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States.
Fetal pain is usually debated using data extrapolated from physiology and anatomy; whereas direct observation of fetal pain reactions is only marginally used. We present the first systematic review to carefully analyse this direct evidence. Our objective was to summarize the scientific literature based on the direct observation of fetal responses to noxious stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroimage
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Human Informatics and Interaction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan; Faculty of Engineering, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan; Universite du Quebec a Trios-Rivieres, Trois- Rivières, Canada. Electronic address:
Functional MRI (fMRI) is an important tool for investigating functional networks. However, the widely used fMRI with T2*-weighted imaging in rodents has the problem of signal lack in the lateral ventral area of forebrain including the amygdala, which is essential for not only emotion but also noxious pain. Here, we scouted the zero-echo time (ZTE) sequence, which is robust to magnetic susceptibility and motion-derived artifacts, to image activation in the whole brain including the amygdala following the noxious stimulation to the hind paw.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells
January 2025
Laboratory of Food and Physiological Sciences, Department of Life and Food Sciences, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Azabu University, 1-17-71, Fuchinobe, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara 252-5201, Kanagawa, Japan.
While the impact of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on modulating nociceptive secondary neuron activity has been documented, it is still unknown how EGCG affects the excitability of nociceptive primary neurons in vivo. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether administering EGCG locally in rats reduces the excitability of nociceptive primary trigeminal ganglion (TG) neurons in response to mechanical stimulation in vivo. In anesthetized rats, TG neuronal extracellular single unit recordings were made in response to both non-noxious and noxious mechanical stimuli.
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