Lamina‐specific population encoding of cutaneous signals in the spinal dorsal horn using multi‐electrode arrays

摘要

Key points class="unordered" style="list-style-type:disc" id="tjp13321-list-0001">Traditional, widely used in vivo electrophysiological techniques for the investigation of spinal processing of somatosensory information fail to account for the diverse functions of each lamina.To overcome this oversimplification, we have used multi‐electrode arrays, in vivo, to simultaneously record neuronal activity across all laminae of the spinal dorsal horn.Multi‐electrode arrays are sensitive enough to detect lamina‐ and region‐specific encoding of different subtypes of afferent fibres and to detect short‐lived changes in synaptic plasticity as measured by the application of cutaneous electrical stimulation of varying intensity and frequency.Differential encoding of innocuous and noxious thermal and mechanical stimuli were also detected across the laminae with the technique, as were the effects of the application of capsaicin.This new approach to the study of the dorsal spinal cord produces significantly more information per experiment, permitting accelerated research whilst also permitting the effects of pharmacological tools to modulate network responses.