High Resolution Mapping of Pain in the Dorsal Horn

描述（由申请人提供）：近年来，疼痛研究在从基因到行为的各个层面上取得了革命性的进展。然而，一个基本的组织水平，已被证明是特别耐分析的内在电路的疼痛传输和调制内的第一个中央中继区，脊髓/髓背角。最近，一种新的技术被开发出来，使得人们有可能第一次以非凡的空间分辨率解剖紧密间隔的神经元突触连接的精细组织。这项技术，扫描激光光刺激，将是理想的揭示第一次的内在组织的背角电路参与疼痛。然而，这项技术的初始设置是相当昂贵和耗时的，而且到目前为止，它的使用几乎完全局限于大脑皮层，主要是在视觉系统中。我请求2年的支持，以建立和收集扫描激光光刺激的初始数据，以研究背角的疼痛（伤害性）回路。这项技术在疼痛系统中的应用将首次打开对背角回路可塑性的整个研究领域的分析，并允许解决自现代疼痛研究开始以来一直争论的问题，以及疼痛调制的门控理论的提出。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In recent years, pain research has made revolutionary advances at levels ranging from genes to behavior. However, one basic level of organization that has proved particularly resistant to analysis is the intrinsic circuitry underlying pain transmission and modulation within the first central relay area, the spinal/medullary dorsal horn. Recently a novel technique was developed that has made it possible for the first time to dissect the fine organization of the synaptic connectivity of closely spaced neural elements with extraordinary spatial resolution. This technique, scanning laser photostimulation, would be ideal for revealing for the first time the intrinsic organization of the dorsal horn circuitry involved in pain. However, the initial setting up of this technique is fairly expensive and time-consuming, and its use has so far been almost entirely restricted to cerebral cortex, primarily in the visual system. I request 2 years of support to set up and collect initial data with scanning laser photostimulation to study pain (nociceptive) circuitry in the dorsal horn. The application of this technique to the pain system will open up to analysis for the first time an entire field of investigation into plasticity of dorsal horn circuitry and allow the resolution of questions that have been debated since the start of the modern era of pain research and the proposal of the gate-control theory of pain modulation.