Journal
EXPERIMENTAL NEUROLOGY
Volume 196, Issue 2, Pages 413-421Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2005.08.015
Keywords
plasticity; somatosensory; diencephalon; cortex; quisqualic acid; genetics; neuroimaging; strain differences; brain
Categories
Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [P01 HD033986-04, P01-HD33986] Funding Source: Medline
- NINDS NIH HHS [R01 NS040096, NS40096] Funding Source: Medline
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Forebrain activation patterns in normal and spinal-injured Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were determined by measuring regional cerebral blood flow as an indicator of neuronal activity. Data are compared to our previously published findings from normal and spinal-injured Long-Evans (LE) rats and reveal a striking degree of overlap, as well as differences, between strains in the basal (unstimulated) forebrain activation in normal animals. Specifically, 81% of the structures sampled showed similar activation in both strains, suggesting a consistent and identifiable pattern of basal cerebral activation in the rat. LE controls showed significantly greater basal activation in the remaining structures compared to SD control group, including the anterior dorsal thalamus, basolateral amygdala, SII cortex, and the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus. In contrast, spinal cord injury (SCI) resulted in strain-specific changes in forebrain activation categorized by structures that showed significant increases in: (1) only LE SCI rats (posterior, ventrolateral, and ventroposterolateral thalamic nuclei); (2) only SD SO rats (anterior-dorsal and medial thalamus, basolateral amygdala, cingulate and retrosplenial cortex, habenula, interpeduncular nucleus, hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, periaqueductal gray); or (3) both strains (arcuate nucleus, ventroposteromedial thalamus, SI and SII somatosensory cortex). These results provide information related to the remote, i.e. supraspinal, effects of spinal cord injury and suggest that genetic differences play an important part in the forebrain response to such injury. Brain activation studies therefore provide a useful tool in understanding the full extent of secondary consequences following spinal injury and for identifying potential central mechanism responsible for the development of pain. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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