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The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 82 No. 3 September 1999, pp. 1164-1177
Copyright ©1999 by the American Physiological Society
-Fiber Nociceptors
Departments of 1Neurosurgery and 2Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21287
Peng, Yuan B.,
Matthias Ringkamp,
James N. Campbell, and
Richard A. Meyer.
Electrophysiological Assessment of the Cutaneous Arborization of
A-Fiber Nociceptors. J. Neurophysiol. 82: 1164-1177, 1999. Little is known about the relationship
between the branching structure and function of physiologically
identified cutaneous nociceptor terminals. The axonal arborization
itself, however, has an impact on the afferent signal that is conveyed
along the parent axon to the CNS. We therefore developed
electrophysiological techniques to investigate the branching structure
of cutaneous nociceptors. Single-fiber recordings were obtained from
physiologically identified nociceptors that innervated the hairy skin
of the monkey. Electrodes for transcutaneous stimulation were fixed at
two separate locations inside the receptive field. For 32 A
-fiber
nociceptors, distinct steps in latency of the recorded action potential
were observed as the intensity of the transcutaneous electrical
stimulus increased, indicating discrete sites for action potential
initiation. The number of discrete latencies at each stimulation
location ranged from 1 to 9 (3.7 ± 0.2; mean ± SE)
and the mean size of the latency step was 9.9 ± 1.0 ms (range:
0.4-89.1 ms). For seven A fibers, collision techniques were used to
locate the position of the branch point where the daughter fibers that
innervated the two locations within the receptive field join the parent
axon. To correct for changes in electrical excitability at the
peripheral terminals, collision experiments between the two skin
locations and between each skin location and a nerve trunk electrode
were necessary. Nine branch points were studied in the seven A
fibers; the mean propagation time from the action potential initiation site to the branch point was 31 ± 5 ms corresponding to a
distance of 54 ± 10 mm. Almost half of the daughter branches were
unmyelinated. These results demonstrate that collision techniques can
be used to study the functional anatomy of physiologically identified nociceptive afferent terminals. Furthermore these results indicate that
some nociceptive afferents branch quite proximal to their peripheral
receptive field. Occlusion of action potential activity can occur in
these long branches such that the shorter branches dominate in the
response to natural stimuli.
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