Nociceptive gamma-band oscillations recorded from the human insula are related to the activation of the spinothalamic tract
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1
Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
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2
St. Luc University Hospital, Belgium
Background:
Using intracerebral electroencephalography, we recently observed that painful heat stimuli, but not non-painful tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli, elicit an enhancement of gamma-band oscillations (GBOs) in the human insula (Liberati et al., under review). This enhancement could be due to different features of the stimuli, such as (i) their painful quality, (ii) the fact that they activate the spinothalamic system, or (iii) the fact that they convey thermal information.
Aims:
To disentangle the possible different aspects underlying the enhancement of GBOs, we examined whether insular GBOs would be elicited by non-painful cool stimuli and non-thermal but painful mechanical pinprick stimuli.
Methods:
Intracerebral EEG was recorded in four patients undergoing a presurgical evaluation of intractable epilepsy (29 insular contacts). Four types of short-lasting stimuli were delivered on the contralateral hand dorsum: (i) painful 62.5°C laser stimuli activating heat-sensitive nociceptors; (ii) mechanical pinprick stimuli activating mechano-sensitive nociceptors; (iii) innocuous cool stimuli activating cool-sensitive free nerve endings; and (iv) innocuous vibrotactile stimuli activating mechanoreceptors of the medial lemniscus system.
Results:
In all patients, all stimuli elicited clear low-frequency phase-locked local field potential (LFPs). In contrast, laser heat stimuli, mechanical pinprick stimuli, and cool stimuli – but not vibrotactile stimuli – elicited an early latency (150-300 ms) enhancement of GBOs (40-90 Hz) similar to what was observed following laser stimulation in our previous study.
Conclusions:
These preliminary findings suggest that stimuli activating the spinothalamic system elicit a consistent enhancement of GBOs in the human insula, regardless of whether they convey thermal sensations or generate pain.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (PROBING-PAIN 336130) and by the the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, Belgium).
Keywords:
Nociception,
Local Field Potentials,
gamma-band oscillations,
Spinothalamic tract,
intracerebral EEG
Conference:
12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience, Gent, Belgium, 22 May - 22 May, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Sensory and Motor Systems
Citation:
Liberati
G,
Algoet
M,
Van Den Broeke
E,
Ferrao Santos
S,
Ribeiro Vaz
J,
Raftopoulos
C and
Mouraux
A
(2019). Nociceptive gamma-band oscillations recorded from the human insula are related to the activation of the spinothalamic tract
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Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
12th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2017.94.00083
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Received:
23 Apr 2017;
Published Online:
25 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
PhD. Giulia Liberati, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, giulia.liberati@uclouvain.be