The feasibility of adopting the microneurography technique (Vallbo and Hagbarth 1968) as a tool to investigate the mechanoreceptive innervation of peri- and intra-oral tissues was explored. Multi-unit activity and impulses in single nerve fibers were recorded from the infraorbital nerve in healthy volunteers. The innervation territories of individual nerve fascicles were mapped. These varied considerably but most fascicle fields comprised the corner of the mouth. Twenty-four single mechanoreceptive units were recorded. Eighteen innervated the skin of the face, and six innervated the mucous membranes of the lips or cheeks. A majority of the mechanoreceptive afferent units were slowly adapting with small and well defined receptive fields. It is suggested that the various slowly adapting responses may originate from two different types of afferent units. No afferents showed response properties similar to typical Pacinian-corpuscle afferents.

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BackgroundThe phenotype of large diameter sensory afferent neurons changes in several models of neuropathic pain. We asked if similar changes also occur in “functional” pain syndromes.Methodology/Principal FindingsAcidic saline (AS, pH 4.0) injections into the masseter muscle were used to induce persistent myalgia. Controls received saline at pH 7.2. Nocifensive responses of Experimental rats to applications of Von Frey Filaments to the masseters were above control levels 1–38 days post-injection. This effect was bilateral. Expression of c-Fos in the Trigeminal Mesencephalic Nucleus (NVmes), which contains the somata of masseter muscle spindle afferents (MSA), was above baseline levels 1 and 4 days after AS. The resting membrane potentials of neurons exposed to AS (n = 167) were hyperpolarized when compared to their control counterparts (n = 141), as were their thresholds for firing, high frequency membrane oscillations (HFMO), bursting, inward and outward rectification. The amplitude of HFMO was increased and spontaneous ectopic firing occurred in 10% of acid-exposed neurons, but never in Controls. These changes appeared within the same time frame as the observed nocifensive behaviour. Ectopic action potentials can travel centrally, but also antidromically to the peripheral terminals of MSA where they could cause neurotransmitter release and activation of adjacent fibre terminals. Using immunohistochemistry, we confirmed that annulospiral endings of masseter MSA express the glutamate vesicular transporter VGLUT1, indicating that they can release glutamate. Many capsules also contained fine fibers that were labelled by markers associated with nociceptors (calcitonin gene-related peptide, Substance P, P2X3 receptors and TRPV1 receptors) and that expressed the metabotropic glutamate receptor, mGluR5. Antagonists of glutamatergic receptors given together with the 2nd injection of AS prevented the hypersensitivity observed bilaterally but were ineffective if given contralaterally.Conclusions/SignificanceLow pH leads to changes in several electrical properties of MSA, including initiation of ectopic action potentials which could propagate centrally but could also invade the peripheral endings causing glutamate release and activation of nearby nociceptors within the spindle capsule. This peripheral drive could contribute both to the transition to, and maintenance of, persistent muscle pain as seen in some “functional” pain syndromes.

To determine how trigeminal brainstem interneurons pattern different forms of rhythmical jaw movements, four types of motor patterns were induced by electrical stimulation within the cortical masticatory areas of rabbits. After these were recorded, animals were paralyzed and fictive motor output was recorded with an extracellular microelectrode in the trigeminal motor nucleus. A second electrode was used to record from interneurons within the lateral part of the parvocellular reticular formation (Rpc-␣, n ϭ 28) and ␥-subnucleus of the oral nucleus of the spinal trigeminal tract (NVspo-␥, n ϭ 68). Both of these areas contain many interneurons projecting to the trigeminal motor nucleus.The basic characteristics of the four movement types evoked before paralysis were similar to those seen after the neuromuscular blockade, although cycle duration was significantly decreased for all patterns.Interneurons showed three types of firing pattern: 54% were inactive, 42% were rhythmically active, and 4% had a tonic firing pattern. Neurons within the first two categories were intermingled in Rpc-␣ and NVspo-␥: 48% of rhythmic neurons were active during one movement type, 35% were active during two, and 13% were active during three or four patterns.Most units fired during either the middle of the masseter burst or interburst phases during fictive movements evoked from the left caudal cortex. In contrast, there were no tendencies toward a preferred coupling of interneuron activity to any particular phase of the cycle during stimulation of other cortical sites. It was concluded that the premotoneurons that form the final commands to trigeminal motoneurons are organized into subpopulations according to movement pattern.Key words: rhythmical movements; pattern generation; mastication; trigeminal system; brainstem; rabbit To be effective, motor patterns need to be adapted to the needs of the organism. As a result, the same body parts often participate in several stereotyped behaviors that differ only in the ordering and scaling of commands to the same pools of motoneurons (e.g., walking vs running and chewing on the right vs chewing on the left). The way in which neural circuits generate these different patterns has been investigated in many species, particularly in invertebrates, and evidence has been found that three basic forms of architecture exist: dedicated circuitry, distributed circuitry, and reorganizing circuitry (for review, see Morton and Chiel, 1994). It is probable, however, that most of the circuits controlling complex movements have features of more than one of the basic models.Dedicated circuits can generate only one pattern, and when they are triggered by a sensory input, they suppress other ongoing behaviors. The circuit that generates wing retraction in the mollusk Clione limacina seems to be an example of this type (Morton and Chiel, 1994). Reorganizing circuits generate different patterns when the effectiveness of synaptic connections between members of the total population of neurons changes. The key feature...