"Brain mechanisms of nociceptive and non-nociceptive motor reflex regulation during sensory, motor and cognitive tasks."

感觉、运动和认知任务中伤害性和非伤害性运动反射调节的大脑机制。脊髓是中枢神经系统中最早接受外周体感输入的中继器之一。这些信息被发送到大脑，可能会唤起感知、情绪、生理反应、认知过程和行为。然而，大脑对来自外周和脊髓的传入信息施加了强大的控制。事实上，大脑的几个区域发出下行指令，可以阻止或放大由脊髓产生的外周信息和相关运动反射的传输。脊髓和大脑之间的这种双向相互作用是本提案的核心。利用创新的电生理和脑成像方法，本研究计划将研究大脑的哪些区域和哪些功能参与两种类型的脊髓运动反射的编码和调节，这两种反射是H反射(由无害刺激引起)和RIII反射(由伤害性刺激引起)。此外，还将研究在运动抑制和止痛过程中抑制脊髓运动反射的大脑机制。总之，这些实验将进一步加深我们对大脑如何计算与脊髓运动反射相关的信息，以及它如何作用于它们以调节运动反应和疼痛的理解。除了有益于疼痛和运动控制领域，这项工作还将为用于诱导止痛的常见干预措施提供科学基础，包括反刺激(疼痛-抑制-疼痛现象)和注意力操纵。

BRAIN MECHANISMS OF NOCICEPTIVE AND NON-NOCICEPTIVE MOTOR REFLEX REGULATION DURING SENSORY, MOTOR AND COGNITIVE TASKS. The spinal cord is one of the first relays of the central nervous system to receive somatosensory input from the periphery. This information is sent to the brain and may evoke perception, emotions, physiological responses, cognitive processes and behaviours. However, the brain exerts a powerful control over incoming information from the periphery and spinal cord. Indeed, several regions of the brain send descending commands that can block or amplify the transmission of peripheral information and associated motor reflexes, produced by the spinal cord. These bidirectional interactions between the spinal cord and the brain are at the core of the present proposal. Using innovative electrophysiological and brain imaging methods, the present research program will investigate which regions and which functions of the brain are involved in the encoding and regulation of two types of spinal motor reflexes, the H-reflex (evoked by innocuous stimulations) and the RIII-reflex (evoked by noxious stimulations). In addition, brain mechanisms allowing inhibition of spinal motor reflexes during motor suppression and analgesia will be examined. Altogether, these experiments will further our understanding of how the brain computes information related to spinal motor reflexes and how it acts on them to regulate motor responses and pain. In addition to benefit to the fields of pain and motor control, this work will provide scientific bases for common interventions that are used to induce analgesia, including counter-irritation (the pain-inhibit-pain phenomenon) and manipulation of attention.