Morphological properties of nociceptive and non-nociceptive neurons in primary somatic cerebral cortex (SI) of cat

Abstract

With the techniques of intracellular recording and labelling, we investigated pain sensation and modulation of the somatic cortical cortex at the neuron’s level. After observing the evoked potentials from stimulating the saphenous nerves (SN) of 654 neurons in SI area of the cats, we labelled 30 of the neurons with Neurobiotin to preserve the distribution and the morphologic characteristics of the neurons in the cortex. Based on the tridimensional reconstruction in addition to the eletrophysiological functions, we found clear morphological distinctions between nociceptive and non-nociceptive neurons (P<0.01). This result provided new experimental material to illustrate the function of nociceptive neurons in somatosensory cortex (SI) and presented further evidence to support the “specificity theory” of pain sensation in terms of morphology.