Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception

Pain perception can be altered by activity in the periaqueductal gray (PAG). The PAG can decrease the incoming nociceptive signals at the level of the spinal dorsal horn, but it is not clear whether the PAG can also affect the sensory thalamus, ventral posterolateral and ventral posteromedial thalam...

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Main Authors: Wu, D, Wang, S, Stein, J, Aziz, T, Green, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2014
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author Wu, D
Wang, S
Stein, J
Aziz, T
Green, A
author_facet Wu, D
Wang, S
Stein, J
Aziz, T
Green, A
author_sort Wu, D
collection OXFORD
description Pain perception can be altered by activity in the periaqueductal gray (PAG). The PAG can decrease the incoming nociceptive signals at the level of the spinal dorsal horn, but it is not clear whether the PAG can also affect the sensory thalamus, ventral posterolateral and ventral posteromedial thalamic nuclei, to modulate pain. However, the PAG and the thalamus have direct connections with each other; so we postulated that the PAG may also modulate pain by inhibiting the sensory nuclei in the thalamus, and that these may also reciprocally influence the PAG. Here, by analyzing the local field potentials recorded from the sensory thalamus and the PAG in chronic pain patients with deep brain stimulation electrodes, we show that PAG stimulation inhibited the sensory thalamus with decreasing thalamic delta, theta, alpha and beta power, and sensory thalamus stimulation excited the PAG with increasing PAG delta and theta power. We demonstrate that the PAG and the sensory thalamus interact reciprocally at short latency, which may be related to pain modulation. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
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spelling oxford-uuid:5f44636d-2a50-410c-a797-d18a5fd9ca542022-03-26T17:45:51ZReciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perceptionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5f44636d-2a50-410c-a797-d18a5fd9ca54EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2014Wu, DWang, SStein, JAziz, TGreen, APain perception can be altered by activity in the periaqueductal gray (PAG). The PAG can decrease the incoming nociceptive signals at the level of the spinal dorsal horn, but it is not clear whether the PAG can also affect the sensory thalamus, ventral posterolateral and ventral posteromedial thalamic nuclei, to modulate pain. However, the PAG and the thalamus have direct connections with each other; so we postulated that the PAG may also modulate pain by inhibiting the sensory nuclei in the thalamus, and that these may also reciprocally influence the PAG. Here, by analyzing the local field potentials recorded from the sensory thalamus and the PAG in chronic pain patients with deep brain stimulation electrodes, we show that PAG stimulation inhibited the sensory thalamus with decreasing thalamic delta, theta, alpha and beta power, and sensory thalamus stimulation excited the PAG with increasing PAG delta and theta power. We demonstrate that the PAG and the sensory thalamus interact reciprocally at short latency, which may be related to pain modulation. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
spellingShingle Wu, D
Wang, S
Stein, J
Aziz, T
Green, A
Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title_full Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title_fullStr Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title_full_unstemmed Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title_short Reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
title_sort reciprocal interactions between the human thalamus and periaqueductal gray may be important for pain perception
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