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The Development of Nociceptive Network Activity in the Somatosensory Cortex of Freely Moving Rat Pups

Chang, P; Fabrizi, L; Olhede, S; Fitzgerald, M; (2016) The Development of Nociceptive Network Activity in the Somatosensory Cortex of Freely Moving Rat Pups. Cerebral Cortex , 26 (12) pp. 4513-4523. 10.1093/cercor/bhw330. Green open access

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Abstract

Cortical perception of noxious stimulation is an essential component of pain experience but it is not known how cortical nociceptive activity emerges during brain development. Here we use continuous telemetric electrocorticogram (ECoG) recording from the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of awake active rat pups to map functional nociceptive processing in the developing brain over the first 4 weeks of life. Cross-sectional and longitudinal recordings show that baseline S1 ECoG energy increases steadily with age, with a distinctive beta component replaced by a distinctive theta component in week 3. Event-related potentials were evoked by brief noxious hindpaw skin stimulation at all ages tested, confirming the presence of functional nociceptive spinothalamic inputs in S1. However, hindpaw incision, which increases pain sensitivity at all ages, did not increase S1 ECoG energy until week 3. A significant increase in gamma (20-50 Hz) energy occurred in the presence of skin incision at week 3 accompanied by a longer-lasting increase in theta (4-8 Hz) energy at week 4. Continuous ECoG recording demonstrates specific postnatal functional stages in the maturation of S1 cortical nociception. Somatosensory cortical coding of an ongoing pain "state" in awake rat pups becomes apparent between 2 and 4 weeks of age.

Type: Article
Title: The Development of Nociceptive Network Activity in the Somatosensory Cortex of Freely Moving Rat Pups
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw330
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw330
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: EEG, development, neonatal, nociceptive networks, pain
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Neuro, Physiology and Pharmacology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Statistical Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1526517
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