FINE STRUCTURE OF TSTT TERMINALS ON VMPO

描述(改编自《调查者摘要》)：我们的理解 疼痛和体温中枢通路的功能组织 感觉依赖于对相关底物的解剖学解释。我们 最近在猴子和人类身上发现了丘脑核(VMPO)，我们 Believe是特定疼痛和温度的感觉中继核 活动。我们将通过检查突触来检验这一假设 三叉神经和棘丘脑板(TSTT)的组织 在VMPO的终止，以确定它们是否提供了依据 用于安全地传递感觉信息的突触。我们将建造 单个顺行标记的体绘制三维模型 来自连续超薄切片的TSTT终端，使用的方法是我们 已成功应用于猫丘脑。虽然在技术上很困难 而且很耗时，这是充分描述 这些终末与相邻超微结构元素的关系。在……里面 重建他们的突触结构，我们将试图识别三叉树 具有突触前树突的排列，这是 丘脑感觉中继核，但其他人认为它与 灵长类动物的TSTT终末。此外，我们将研究各种可能性 伤害性和感热性板层的终末 纤维可能是不同的，正如先前在CAT上的工作所表明的那样，而且 腹侧后核(Vp)的I型板层终末可能不同于 在VMpo。这些研究将提高我们对丘脑的了解 疼痛和温度信息处理的基础底物， 他们将提供对突触基础的洞察力 刺激大脑中的这一区域可以产生疼痛和寒冷 人类丘脑。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract): Our understanding of the functional organization of central pathways for pain and temperature sensations depends on anatomical elucidation of the substrates involved. We recently identified a thalamic nucleus in monkeys and humans (VMpo) that we believe is a sensory relay nucleus for specific pain and temperature activity. We will test this hypothesis by examining the synaptic organization of the lamina I trigemino- and spino-thalamic (TSTT) terminations in VMpo in order to determine whether they provide the basis for secure synaptic relay of sensory information. We will build volume-rendered three-dimensional models of single anterogradely-labeled TSTT terminals from serial ultrathin sections, using a methodology that we have applied successfully in the cat thalamus. Though technically difficult and time consuming, this is the only means of fully characterizing the relationships of these terminals with adjacent ultrastructural elements. In reconstructing their synaptology, we will seek to identify triadic arrangements with presynaptic dendrites, which are characteristic of thalamic sensory relay nuclei but which others say are not associated with TSTT terminals in the primate. Further, we will examine the possibilities that the terminations of nociceptive and thermoreceptive lamina I TSTT fibers may be different, as suggested by prior work in the cat, and that lamina I terminations in the ventral posterior n. (VP) may differ from those in VMpo. These studies will improve our understanding of the thalamic substrates underlying the processing of pain and temperature information, and they will offer insight into the synaptic basis for the sensations of pain and cold that can be produced by stimulation of this region in the human thalamus.