Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Trigemino-cervical-spinal reflexes in humans.

Mariano Serrao1, Paolo Rossi, Leoluca Parisi

  • 1Dipartimento di Neurologia e Otorinolaringoiatria, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy. jackmarian@mclink.it

Clinical Neurophysiology : Official Journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
|September 2, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Myoinositol and Selenium (MYSE) Supplementation Is Associated with Favorable Changes in Thyroid Parameters and Migraine Outcomes in Patients with Migraine and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Nutrients·2026
Same author

Pilot biomechanical study of complex upper-limb movements in patients with RSA using inertial sensors: Feasibility of sport-specific gestures.

Shoulder & elbow·2026
Same author

Reliability and minimal detectable change for inertial measurement units - Derived stability, symmetry, and smoothness indexes of gait in people with multiple sclerosis.

Gait & posture·2025
Same author

Clinical and instrumental gait phenotyping in people with GLUT-1 deficiency syndrome.

Gait & posture·2025
Same author

Artificial neural networks applied to somatosensory evoked potentials for migraine classification.

The journal of headache and pain·2025
Same author

Discriminative ability, responsiveness, and interpretability of smoothness index of gait in people with multiple sclerosis.

Archives of physiotherapy·2025

Electrical stimulation of the supraorbital nerve (SON) triggers nociceptive trigemino-cervical responses (TCR) and trigemino-spinal responses (TSR) in upper limb muscles. These findings suggest a shared nocifensive role and distinct polysynaptic pathways for these protective reflexes.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Somatosensory research
  • Reflex pathways

Background:

  • Supraorbital nerve (SON) stimulation elicits neck muscle responses, hypothesized as defensive polysynaptic reflexes against facial pain.
  • These reflexes may involve proximal arm muscles, indicating a broader protective response.
  • Understanding these trigeminal reflexes is crucial for deciphering nociceptive processing and motor control.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate upper limb trigemino-spinal responses (TSR) and their relation to trigemino-cervical responses (TCR).
  • To determine the nociceptive component and functional significance of these reflexes.
  • To explore the neural pathways mediating these trigeminal-evoked motor responses.

Main Methods:

  • Recorded reflex responses from semispinalis capitis and biceps brachii muscles following electrical SON stimulation in healthy subjects.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Measured sensory (ST), painful (PT) thresholds, reflex thresholds, latency, and response area.
  • Assessed the impact of heterotopic painful stimulation (HTP), recovery cycles, and stimulus predictability.

    • Main Results:

    • Reproducible TCR and TSR were consistently observed at the painful threshold (PT).
    • Heterotopic painful stimulation significantly reduced both TCR and TSR magnitudes.
    • TSR recovery cycles were faster than TCR, suggesting differential pathway dynamics.

    Conclusions:

    • The study confirms the nociceptive nature of TCR and establishes a similar nocifensive role for TSR in the biceps brachii.
    • TCR and TSR are mediated by distinct polysynaptic pathways, highlighting complex neural processing.
    • Trigemino-cervical-spinal responses demonstrate reflex interaction between nociceptive trigeminal afferents and cervical spinal cord motoneurons.