Splanchnic Afferent Pathways in the Central Nervous System

The representation of the splanchnic afferent pathways in the thalamus of the cat

“…Patton & Amassian (1951), using gross electrodes, recorded fast waves of latency 5-6 msec in the pars externa of the posterior ventral nucleus following stimulation of the A4B afferents in the splanchnic nerve, but did not record activity in response to stimulating the Ay3 fibres. A similar representation of the A,8 fibres was found in this nucleus by Aidar et al (1952) who also recorded a few slow waves, mainly in the hypothalamus and caudal part of the thalamus, which were probably due to activity in fibres of passage. By employing the technique of recording from single neural units it has been possible to show in this work that both the AP and Ay8 fibres are represented in the contralateral posterior ventral nucleus, and some AyS units have been recorded also in a similar position on the ipsilateral side.…”

“…In regard to the representation of the splanchnic afferents in the thalamus little work has been done. Aidar, Geohegan & Ungewitter (1952) have recorded responses to stimulation of the splanchnic nerve in various parts of the brain stem and thalamus and Patton & Amassian (1951) found evidence that the fast conducting fibres relayed in the posterior ventral nucleus. These earlier investigations had been conducted using large steel recording electrodes, and in this present work smaller electrodes have been used in order to record from single neural units following electrical stimulation of the splanchnic nerve.…”

Ascending projections from the area around the spinal cord central canal: APhaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin study in rats

“…There is growing evidence, however, showing that the DC pathway may contribute to central transmission of visceral nociceptive information (Amassian, 1951a(Amassian, ,b, 1952Aidar et al, 1952;Hancock, 1974, 1978;Berkley and Hubscher, 1995;Al-Chaer et al, 1996a,b;Hirshberg et al, 1996;Houghton et al, 1997b;Nauta et al, 1997;Feng et al, 1998). Clinically, it has been reported that intractable pelvic cancer pain can be relieved by a limited midline myelotomy extending from the dorsal surface of the spinal cord to the level of the dorsal gray Nauta et al, 1997).…”

Single unit activity in the viscero‐sensory areas of the cerebral cortex

“…Bain, Irving & McSwiney (1935) showed that afferent pathways in the splanchnic nerve entered the spinal cord as high as the third dorsal segment and ascended to the oculomotor nucleus. The spinal pathways have been investigated by Amassian (1951), Downman (1951), Aidar, Geohegan & Ungewitter (1952) and Gardner, Thomas & Morin (1955); it seems that the fast-conducting pathways, which comprise the A beta group of splanchnic afferents, are in the medial dorsal column and relay in the nucleus gracilis to the posteroventral nucleus of the thalamus. Thalamic representation of splanchnic afferents was described by Patton & Amassian (1951) and more recently by McLeod (1958).…”