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Touch and tactile neuropathic pain sensitivity are set by corticospinal projections.

ABSTRACT: Current models of somatosensory perception emphasize transmission from primary sensory neurons to the spinal cord and on to the brain1-4. Mental influence on perception is largely assumed to occur locally within the brain. Here we investigate whether sensory inflow through the spinal cord undergoes direct top-down control by the cortex. Although the corticospinal tract (CST) is traditionally viewed as a primary motor pathway5, a subset of corticospinal neurons (CSNs) originating in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex directly innervate the spinal dorsal horn via CST axons. Either reduction in somatosensory CSN activity or transection of the CST in mice selectively impairs behavioural responses to light touch without altering responses to noxious stimuli. Moreover, such CSN manipulation greatly attenuates tactile allodynia in a model of peripheral neuropathic pain. Tactile stimulation activates somatosensory CSNs, and their corticospinal projections facilitate light-touch-evoked activity of cholecystokinin interneurons in the deep dorsal horn. This touch-driven feed-forward spinal-cortical-spinal sensitization loop is important for the recruitment of spinal nociceptive neurons under tactile allodynia. These results reveal direct cortical modulation of normal and pathological tactile sensory processing in the spinal cord and open up opportunities for new treatments for neuropathic pain.

SUBMITTER: Liu Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6163083 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Touch and tactile neuropathic pain sensitivity are set by corticospinal projections.

Liu Yuanyuan Y Latremoliere Alban A Li Xinjian X Zhang Zicong Z Chen Mengying M Wang Xuhua X Fang Chao C Zhu Junjie J Alexandre Chloe C Gao Zhongyang Z Chen Bo B Ding Xin X Zhou Jin-Yong JY Zhang Yiming Y Chen Chinfei C Wang Kuan Hong KH Woolf Clifford J CJ He Zhigang Z

Nature 20180912 7724

Current models of somatosensory perception emphasize transmission from primary sensory neurons to the spinal cord and on to the brain<sup>1-4</sup>. Mental influence on perception is largely assumed to occur locally within the brain. Here we investigate whether sensory inflow through the spinal cord undergoes direct top-down control by the cortex. Although the corticospinal tract (CST) is traditionally viewed as a primary motor pathway<sup>5</sup>, a subset of corticospinal neurons (CSNs) origin ...[more]

PMID: 30209395

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Project description:BackgroundWhen scanning surfaces, humans perceive some of their physical attributes. These percepts are frequently accompanied by a sensation of (un)pleasantness. We therefore hypothesized that aspects of the mechanical activity induced by scanning surfaces with fingertips could be objectively associated with a pleasantness sensation. Previously, we developed a unidimensional measure of pleasantness, the Pleasant Touch Scale, quantifying the pleasantness level of 37 different materials. Findings of this study suggested that the sensation of pleasantness was influenced by the average magnitude of the frictional forces brought about by sliding the finger on the surface, and by the surface topography. In the present study, we correlated (i) characteristics of the fluctuations of frictional forces resulting from the interaction between the finger and the surface asperities as well as (ii) the average friction with the sensation of pleasantness.ResultsEight blindfolded participants tactually explored twelve materials of the Pleasant Touch Scale through lateral sliding movements of their index fingertip. During exploration, the normal and tangential interaction force components, fN and fT , as well as the fingertip trajectory were measured. The effect of the frictional force on pleasantness sensation was investigated through the analysis of the ratio fT to fN , i.e. the net coefficient of kinetic friction, ?. The influence of the surface topographies was investigated through analysis of rapid fT fluctuations in the spatial frequency domain. Results showed that high values of ? were anticorrelated with pleasantness. Furthermore, surfaces associated with fluctuations of fT having higher amplitudes in the low frequency range than in the high one were judged to be less pleasant than the surfaces yielding evenly distributed amplitudes throughout the whole spatial frequency domain.ConclusionCharacteristics of the frictional force fluctuations and of the net friction taking place during scanning can reliably be correlated with the pleasantness sensation of surfaces.

Dataset Information

Touch and tactile neuropathic pain sensitivity are set by corticospinal projections.

Publications

Touch and tactile neuropathic pain sensitivity are set by corticospinal projections.

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