It has been shown that several different types of peripheral lesions including transection and regeneration of peripheral nerves, are capable of eliciting significant organizational changes in primate somatosensory cortex. It has been suggested that these organizational changes may parallel in some manner the clinically observed recovery from sensory deficits experienced following traumatic injury to peripheral nerves. In the proposed research, we will employ the procedure we recently developed to examine the effects of impulses in individual primary sensory afferents on identified dorsal horn neurons. This procedure consists of: 1) Establishing a stable intracellular recording in a characterized primary sensory afferent in the dorsal root ganglion; 2) locating an identified dorsal horn interneuron with a receptive field which contains that of the primary afferent; 3) Intracellularly stimulating the afferent while simultaneously recording, either extracellularly or intracellularly, the response of the dorsal horn interneuron. The long term objectives of the proposed research are: 1) Determine how specific sensory inputs from individual characterized primary sensory afferents are processed by identified and characterized dorsal horn interneurons, including both cells of origin of specific ascending systems and cells involved in propriospinal pathways; 2) Examine the effects of peripheral nerve transection and regeneration on the processing of these specific inputs over time, initially when regenerating fibers first reach the skin and reinnervate cutaneous receptors in some preparations and several months after recovery in others; 3) Evaluate the plastic capabilities in the central processing of these precise inputs during this recovery period; 4) Determine to what extent (if at all) this plasticity in the spinal dorsal horn may subserve the observed organizational changes in the somatosensory cortex.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01NS023725-01
Application #
3407530
Study Section
Neurology B Subcommittee 1 (NEUB)
Project Start
1986-09-01
Project End
1989-08-31
Budget Start
1986-09-01
Budget End
1987-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
State University New York Stony Brook
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
804878247
City
Stony Brook
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
11794
Jankowski, Michael P; Miller, Lauren; Koerber, H Richard (2018) Increased Expression of Transcription Factor SRY-box-Containing Gene 11 (Sox11) Enhances Neurite Growth by Regulating Neurotrophic Factor Responsiveness. Neuroscience 382:93-104
Hachisuka, Junichi; Omori, Yu; Chiang, Michael C et al. (2018) Wind-up in lamina I spinoparabrachial neurons: a role for reverberatory circuits. Pain 159:1484-1493
Jankowski, Michael P; Rau, Kristofer K; Koerber, H Richard (2017) Cutaneous TRPM8-expressing sensory afferents are a small population of neurons with unique firing properties. Physiol Rep 5:
Jankowski, Michael P; Baumbauer, Kyle M; Wang, Ting et al. (2017) Cutaneous neurturin overexpression alters mechanical, thermal, and cold responsiveness in physiologically identified primary afferents. J Neurophysiol 117:1258-1265
Hachisuka, Junichi; Baumbauer, Kyle M; Omori, Yu et al. (2016) Semi-intact ex vivo approach to investigate spinal somatosensory circuits. Elife 5:
Reed-Geaghan, Erin G; Wright, Margaret C; See, Lauren A et al. (2016) Merkel Cell-Driven BDNF Signaling Specifies SAI Neuron Molecular and Electrophysiological Phenotypes. J Neurosci 36:4362-76
Molliver, Derek C; Rau, Kristofer K; Jankowski, Michael P et al. (2016) Deletion of the murine ATP/UTP receptor P2Y2 alters mechanical and thermal response properties in polymodal cutaneous afferents. Neuroscience 332:223-30
Baumbauer, Kyle M; DeBerry, Jennifer J; Adelman, Peter C et al. (2015) Keratinocytes can modulate and directly initiate nociceptive responses. Elife 4:
Kardon, Adam P; Polgár, Erika; Hachisuka, Junichi et al. (2014) Dynorphin acts as a neuromodulator to inhibit itch in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Neuron 82:573-86
Vrontou, Sophia; Wong, Allan M; Rau, Kristofer K et al. (2013) Genetic identification of C fibres that detect massage-like stroking of hairy skin in vivo. Nature 493:669-73

Showing the most recent 10 out of 40 publications