Segmental organization of visceral and somatic input onto C3-T6 spinothalamic tract cells of the monkey

1. Referred pain of visceral origin has three major characteristics: visceral pain is referred to somatic areas that are innervated from the same spinal segments as the diseased organ; visceral pain is referred to proximal body regions and not to distal body areas; and visceral pain is felt as deep pain and not as cutaneous pain. The neurophysiological basis for these phenomena is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the organization of viscerosomatic response characteristics of spinothalamic tract (STT) neurons in the rostral spinal cord. Interactions were determined among the following: 1) segmental location, 2) effects of input by cardiopulmonary sympathetic, greater splanchnic, lumbar sympathetic, and urinary bladder afferent fibers, 3) location of excitatory somatic field, e.g., hand, forearm, proximal arm, or chest, 4) magnitude of response to hair, skin, and deep mechanoreceptor afferent input, and 5) regional specificity of thalamic projection sites. 2. A total of 89 STT neurons in segments C3-T6 were characterized for responses to visceral and somatic stimuli. Neurons were activated antidromically from the contralateral ventroposterolateral oralis or caudalis nuclei of the thalamus. Cell responses to visceral and somatic stimuli were not different on the basis of the thalamic site of antidromic activation. Recording sites for 61 neurons were located histologically; 87% of lesion sites were located in laminae IV-VII or X. There was no relationship between response properties of the neurons and spinal laminar location. 3. Different responses to visceral stimuli were observed in three zones of the rostral spinal cord: C3-C6, C7-C8, and T1-T6. In C3-C6, urinary bladder distension (UBD) and electrical stimulation of greater splanchnic and lumbar sympathetic afferent fibers inhibited STT cells. Electrical stimulation of cardiopulmonary sympathetic afferents increased cell activity in C5 and C6 and either excited or inhibited STT cells in C3 and C4. In the cervical enlargement (C7-C8), STT cells generally were either inhibited or showed little response to stimulation of visceral afferent fibers. In T1-T6, input from greater splanchnic and cardiopulmonary sympathetic afferent nerves increased activity of STT cells. Lumbar sympathetic afferent input inhibited cells in T1-T2 and had little effect on cells in T3-T6, whereas UBD decreased cell activity in all segments studied. 4. In general, stimulation of somatic structures increased activity of STT neurons in segments that received primary afferent innervation from the excitatory somatic receptive field or in the segments immediately adjacent to these segments. Only input from the forelimb, especially the hand, markedly excited cells in C7 and C8.+