Study on axonal projection of tooth-pulp driven neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex

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Distribution of axons from thalamic tooth-pulp driven neurons (thalamic TPNs) in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) were analyzed in the present study. Following three projects were provided primarily in order to clarify the cortical processing of the trigeminal nociceptive information, 1)Electrophysiological analysis of axons of the thalamic TPNs, 2)Anatomical tracing study of axons from thalamic TPNs, 3)Single axon tracing of thalamic TPNs.It was clarified in the present study that thalamic TPNs had axons distributed in the SI with clusters. It has been known that SI is organized as functional columns, which are involved in processing same sensory information. These revealed that thalamic TPNs had axons projecting to the TPNs in the different columns of the SI.The present data together with previous studies suggest that nociceptive neurons in the thalamic nuclei are able to activate SI nociceptive neurons simultaneously. The thalamocortical system as described here may be very convenient for human to escape from the noxious stimuli quickly.Single neuron tracing experiment has not successfully been done yet. However, it is believed that present study attains above-mentioned propose.