Abstract
Self-mutilation of a forelimb often occurs in rats after the dorsal roots from the limb are transected. The present study investigated some of the conditions that affect the onset of chewing of the paw. It was found that painful irritation of the forepaw for 1 h prior to root transection significantly accelerated the onset of chewing and shifted the site of origin of chewing to the more distal portions of the paw. This observation suggests that the painful irritation triggers central neural activity characteristic of normal pain processing, and that deafferentation interrupts the input to brain stem inhibitory regions which would ordinarily suppress the pain-related activity. This “pain memory” may thus continue unchecked, thereby accelerating the onset of the abnormal central neural activity which triggers biting or chewing responses. The surprising observation that painful irritation of the paw after rhizotomy also accelerated the onset of chewing suggests that nonneural factors may contribute to the abnormal neural activity that underlies self-mutilation. The effects of different configurations of dorsal root transection on self-mutilation are described and discussed.
Published Version
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