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Although the inhibitory action that tactile stimuli can have on pain is well documented, the precise timing of the interaction between the painful and non-painful stimuli in the central nervous system is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate this issue by measuring the timing of the amplitude modulation of laser evoked potentials ( LEPs) due to conditioning non-painful stimuli. LEPs were recorded from 31 scalp electrodes in 10 healthy subjects after painful stimulation of the right arm (C6-C7 dermatomes). Non-painful electrical stimuli were applied by ring electrodes on the second and third finger of the right hand. Electrical stimuli were delivered at +50, +150, +200 and +250 ms interstimulus intervals ( ISIs) after the laser pulses. LEPs obtained without any conditioning stimulation were used as a baseline. As compared to the baseline, non-painful electrical stimulation reduced the amplitude of the vertex N2/P2 LEP component and the laser pain rating when electrical stimuli followed the laser pulses only at +150 and +200 ms ISIs. As at these ISIs the collision between the non-painful and painful input is likely to take place at the cortical level, we can conclude that the late processing of painful (thermal) stimuli is partially inhibited by the processing of non-painful (cutaneous) stimuli within the cerebral cortex. Moreover, our results do not provide evidence that non-painful inputs can inhibit pain at a lower level, including the spinal cord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study tested the hypothesis of a phase synchronization (functional coupling) of cortical alpha rhythms (about 6-12 Hz) within a 'speech' cortical neural network comprising bilateral primary auditory cortex and Wernicke's areas, during dichotic listening (DL) of consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. Dichotic stimulation was done with the CV-syllable pairs /da/-/ba/ (true DL, yielded by stimuli having high spectral overlap) and /da/-/ka/ (sham DL, obtained with stimuli having poor spectral overlap). Whole-head MEG activity (165 sensors) was recorded from 10 healthy right-handed non-musicians showing right ear advantage in a speech DL task. Functional coupling of alpha rhythms was defined as the spectral coherence at the following bands: alpha 1 (about 6-8 Hz), alpha 2 (about 8-10 Hz), and alpha 3 (about 10-12) with respect to the peak of individual alpha frequency. Results showed an inverse pattern of functional coupling: during DL of speech sounds, spectral coherence of the high-band alpha rhythms increased between left auditory and Wernicke's areas with respect to sham DL, whereas it decreased between left and right auditory areas. The increase of functional coupling within the left hemisphere would underlie the processing of the syllable presented to the right ear, which arrives to the left auditory cortex without the interference of the other syllable presented to the left ear. Conversely, the decrease of inter-hemispherical coupling of the high-band alpha might be due to the fact that the two auditory cortices do not receive the same information from the ears during DL. These results suggest that functional coupling of alpha rhythms can constitute a neural substrate for the lateralization of auditory stimuli during DL. Hum Brain Mapp 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to regulate plasticity in the visual cortex of monocularly deprived animals. However, to date, few attempts have been made to investigate the role of NGF in synaptic plasticity at the cellular level. In the study reported here we looked at the effects of exogenously applied NGF on synaptic plasticity of layer II-III regular spiking (RS) neurones in visual cortex of 16- to 18-day-old rats. We found that local application of NGF converted high frequency stimulation (HFS)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) into long-term depression (LTD). We showed that this shift of synaptic plasticity was also obtained with bath application of NGF during HFS. Application of NGF subsequent to HFS left LTP unaffected, conferring temporal constraints on NGF efficacy. NGF effects on LTP were mediated by TrkA receptors. Indeed, blockade of TrkA by monoclonal antibody prevented NGF from inducing LTD following HFS. Low frequency stimulation (LFS) elicited LTD in RS cells. We found that NGF or blockade of NGF signalling by anti-TrkA antibody did not change the amplitude of the LTD induced by LFS. Thus, the NGF effect is selective for synaptic modifications induced by HFS in RS cells. The present results indicate that NGF may modulate the sign of long-term changes of synaptic efficacy in response to high frequency inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study on auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs) was aimed at verifying whether during dichotic listening the contralateral auditory pathway inhibits the ipsilateral one, as suggested by behavioural and patient studies. Ten healthy subjects were given a randomized series of three complex tones (261,293 and 391 Hz, 500 ms duration), which were delivered monotically and dichotically with different intensities [60, 70 or 80 dBA (audio decibels)]. MEG data were recorded from the right auditory cortex. Results showed that the M100 amplitude over the right auditory cortex increased progressively when tones of increasing intensity were provided at the ipsilateral (right) ear. This effect on M100 was abolished when a concurrent tone of constant intensity was delivered dichotically at the contralateral (left) ear, suggesting that the contralateral pathway inhibited the ipsilateral one. The ipsilateral inhibition was present only when the contralateral tone fundamental frequency was similar to the ipsilateral tone. It was proposed that the occlusion mechanism would be exerted in cortical auditory areas as the dichotic effects were observed at M100 but not M50 component. This is the first evidence showing a neurophysiological inhibition driven by the contralateral auditory pathway over the ipsilateral one during dichotic listening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the present study, high-resolution electroencephalography techniques modelled the spatiotemporal pattern of human anticipatory cortical responses preceding expected galvanic painful stimuli (non-painful stimuli as a control). Do these responses reflect the activation of associative other than somatosensory systems? Anticipatory processes were probed by alpha oscillations (6–12 Hz) for the evaluation of thalamocortical channels and by negative event-related potentials for the evaluation of cortical excitability. Compared with the control condition, a progressive reduction of the alpha power was recognized over the primary somatosensory cortex from 2 s before the painful stimulation. In contrast, the anticipatory event-related potentials were negligible during the expectancy period. The results on the alpha power suggest that the expectancy of the painful stimulation specifically facilitated the somatosensory thalamocortical channel. Remarkably, the associative frontal-parietal areas were not involved, possibly due to the predictable and repetitive features of the painful stimulus. The present results also suggest that negative event-related potentials are modest preceding warned stimuli (even if painful) with a simple information content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]