Skip to main content

(NAS Colloquium) The Neurobiology of Pain (1999) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

Forebrain Mechanisms of Nociception and Pain: Analysis Through Imaging
Pages 7668-7674

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 7668...
... The structures most consistently activated across genders and during contact heat pain, cold pain, cutaneous laser pain or intramuscular pain were the contralateral insula and anterior cingulate cortex, the bilateral thalamus and premotor cortex, and the cerebellar vermis. These regions are commonly activated in PET studies of pain conducted by other investigators, and the intensity of the brain rCBF response correlates parametrically with perceived pain intensity.
Read the entire page →
From page 7669...
... Blocking the production of nitric oxide has no effect on synaptically induced rCBF responses in the rat somatosensory system (30~. There is evidence that adenosine may be a critical link in this process, but it is likely that the action of several mediators may be important (31~.
Read the entire page →
From page 7670...
... The resulting rCBF responses may have been reduced below the sensitivity of our PET analysis. To test this possibility, we performed a series of PET studies on subjects who were asked to discriminate the differences between innocuous warm stimuli delivered to the volar forearm at normal baseline skin temperature.
Read the entire page →
From page 7671...
... The results suggest that the increased rCBF responses observed during noxious stimulation reflect physiological differences in neuronal activity that are related to both nociceptive processing and the perception of pain. The overlap in the spatial distribution of rCBF increases during noxious cutaneous heat and noxious deep-cold stimulation suggests that a reproducible pattern of rCBF responses may occur that is common to the perceptions of pain produced by different stimuli.
Read the entire page →
From page 7672...
... Information relevant to perceived stimulus intensity thus appears to be distributed widely, not simply to structures such as the S1 cortex that are known to mediate discriminative function. The ability of PET to provide information about nociceptive processing in the awake human brain offers an opportunity to study the effects of neuropathic pain, central nervous system damage, and the unique effects of analgesics.
Read the entire page →
From page 7673...
... Activation of the cingulate cortex is consistent with the activation of one of its major inputs, the anterior dorsal thalamic nuclei, and is in accord with the limbic cortical activation seen in human PET studies. Overall, the bilateral activation of somatosensory and limbic structures agrees with 2-deoxyglucose studies of glucose uptake in rats with chronic constriction injures of the sciatic nerve (83~.
Read the entire page →
From page 7674...
... (1993) in Neurobiology of Cingulate Cortex and Limbic Thalamus: A Comprehensive Handbook, eds.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • nociceptive processing
  • cingulate cortex
  • pet studies
  • rcbf responses
  • rcbf increases

  • premotor cortex
  • noxious stimulation
  • lenticular nucleus
  • noxious heat
  • noxious stimuli

  • cerebellar vermis
  • prefrontal cortex
  • blood flow
  • contralateral anterior
  • synaptic activity

  • nociceptive input
  • formalin test
  • statistical significance
  • brain res
  • anterior insula

  • cutaneous laser
  • late phase
  • periaqueductal gray
  • stimulus intensity
  • contralateral prefrontal

  • contralateral thalamus
  • volar forearm
  • emission tomography
  • hindlimb cortex
  • cerebral blood


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.