Facilitating action of medial prefrontal cortex upon the noxious thermally-evoked responses in thalamic centralis...

This paper shows a medial prefrontal cortex (CxAP9) facilitating influence upon the unit activity of the centralis lateralis (Cl) nucleus of the thalamus, in rats anesthetized with urethane. Cortical influences were studied using both cortical cooling and cortical spreading depression (CSD) procedures. Both spontaneous and noxious thermally evoked activities were considered. When CSD was propagated and affected the CxAP9, as well as during the cooling of this area, both spontaneous activity and the responses evoked in Cl cells by noxious stimulation were blocked. This effect was interpreted as a cortical disfacilitation upon Cl cells. During the cortical silent period we tested the excitability of a few Cl cells, provoking their activation by passing electrical current across the same Cl recording electrode. No changes were observed in their excitable response threshold during CSD or cortical cooling. Our results are in agreement with the proposition of a tonic cortical facilitatory action upon the spontaneous and noxious-evoked responses recorded in the Cl cells.