Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Potentially harmful stimuli are detected at the skin by nociceptor sensory neurons that drive rapid protective withdrawal reflexes and pain. We set out to define, at a millisecond timescale, the relationship between the activity of these sensory neurons and the resultant behavioral output. Brief optogenetic activation of cutaneous nociceptors was found to activate only a single action potential in each fiber. This minimal input was used to determine high-speed behavioral responses in freely behaving mice. The localized stimulus generated widespread dynamic repositioning and alerting sub-second behaviors whose nature and timing depended on the context of the animal and its position, activity, and alertness. Our findings show that the primary response to injurious stimuli is not limited, fixed, or localized, but is dynamic, and that it involves recruitment and gating of multiple circuits distributed throughout the central nervous system at a sub-second timescale to effectively both alert to the presence of danger and minimize risk of harm.
Source: Cell Reports
Authors: Liam E. Browne, Alban Latremoliere, Brendan P. Lehnert, Alyssa Grantham, Catherine Ward, Chloe Alexandre, Michael Costigan, Frédéric Michoud, David P. Roberson, David D. Ginty, Clifford J. Woolf
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,620
Awards: Sleep disturbance as a risk factor for developing chronic pain, G1182690428, Optochemical control of P2X receptor ion channels: dissecting their role in pain signalling, Elucidating Cutaneous Mechanosensory Circuits, from Development to Disease, Altered Sensibility Following Peripheral Nerve Damage, Neural Plasticity and Inflammatory Pain, Boston Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, The mechanisms of action of T-lymphocytes in neuropathic pain, Functional dissection of neural circuitry underlying pain signalling., Genetic Dissection of Direct and Indirect Touch Pathways
OpenAlex ID: W2734226335