Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF DISEASE
Volume 87, Issue -, Pages 39-49Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2015.12.003
Keywords
Thalamocortical plasticity; Spinal cord injury; Somatosensory system; Nucleus ventralis posterior lateralis of the thalamus; Electrophysiology; Evoked responses; Spontaneous activity
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Funding
- Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria del Instituto de Salud Carlos III
- FEDER [PI08/1810, PI11/02451, SAF2012/40109]
- Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Goverment of Spain
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Spinal cord injury (SCI) involves large-scale deafferentation of supraspinal structures in the somatosensory system, producing well-known long-term effects at the thalamo-cortical level. We recently showed that SCI provokes immediate changes in cortical spontaneous and evoked responses and here, we have performed a similar study to define the immediate changes produced in the thalamic ventro-postero-lateral nucleus (VPL) that are associated with the forepaw and hindpaw circuits. Extracellular electrophysiological recordings from the VPL reflected the spontaneous activity and the responses to peripheral electrical stimulation applied to the paws. Accordingly, the activity of the neuronal populations recorded at specific thalamic locations that correspond to the forepaw and hindpaw circuits was recorded under control conditions and immediately after thoracic SCI. The results demonstrate that peripheral inputs from both extremities overlap on neuronal populations in the somatosensory thalamus. In addition, they show that the responses of thalamic neurons to forepaw and hindpaw stimuli are increased immediately after SCI, in association with a specific decrease in spontaneous activity in the hindpaw locations. Finally, the increased thalamic responses after SCI have a state-dependent component in relation with cortical activity. Together, our results indicate that the thalamic changes occurring immediately after SCI could contribute to the cortical changes also detected immediately after such spinal lesions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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