Nonnociceptive afferent activity depresses nocifensive behavior and nociceptive synapses via an endocannabinoid-dependent mechanism

摘要

nociceptive signaling can be modulated by nonnociceptive afferent activity, a process referred to as gate control (Melzack and Wall 1965). Traditionally, gate control was thought to be a short-term process, lasting as long as the duration of the nonnociceptive afferent activity. Nonnociceptive A/3-frbers activate GABAergic interneurons, which, in turn, attenuate C-fi-ber signaling (D'Mello and Dickenson 2008; Melzack and Wall 1965; Price et al. 2009; Zeilhofer et al. 2009). This gate control process is the basis for analgesic therapies, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators (TENS) and spinal cord stimulation (SCS).