Somatosensory cortical signature of facial nociception and vibrotactile touch-induced analgesia.

ABSTRACT: Pain relief by vibrotactile touch is a common human experience. Previous neurophysiological investigations of its underlying mechanism in animals focused on spinal circuits, while human studies suggested the involvement of supraspinal pathways. Here, we examine the role of primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in touch-induced mechanical and heat analgesia. We found that, in mice, vibrotactile reafferent signals from self-generated whisking significantly reduce facial nociception, which is abolished by specifically blocking touch transmission from thalamus to the barrel cortex (S1B). Using a signal separation algorithm that can decompose calcium signals into sensory-evoked, whisking, or face-wiping responses, we found that the presence of whisking altered nociceptive signal processing in S1B n

SUBMITTER: Lu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9668294 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature