初级躯体感觉皮层和前扣带皮层在痒觉感知中的作用

项目名称： 初级躯体感觉皮层和前扣带皮层在痒觉感知中的作用

项目编号： No.31300920

项目类型： 青年科学基金项目

立项/批准年度： 2014

项目学科： 生物科学

项目作者： 乔志梅

作者单位： 华东师范大学

项目金额： 21万元

中文摘要： 痒是一种可引起抓挠欲望的不愉快的感觉，是多种皮肤病和系统性疾病的自觉症状。由于我们对痒的生理和病理机制认识不足，导致临床上缺乏有效治疗瘙痒的药物和手段。近年来，随着研究的深入，对于痒觉的外周和脊髓机制有了越来越多的了解，在外周和脊髓水平都发现了痒觉特异性的神经元，但对于高级中枢神经系统感知和处理痒觉信息的机制，我们的了解还很少。本研究拟采用在体多通道神经元放电记录技术和药理学实验，在清醒的大鼠上研究初级躯体感觉皮层和前扣带皮层在痒觉感知和信息处理中的作用。通过观察核团注射药物后动物的行为学反应，以及初级躯体感觉皮层和前扣带皮层内的神经元对致痒剂的反应特性，探明它们是否参与了痒觉的感知及其作用，在这些脑区内是否也存在痒觉特异性的纤维投射，这两个脑区对痒觉和痛觉的处理机制有何异同。此研究的完成将有助于进一步揭示痒觉的生理机制。

中文关键词： 痒觉；初级躯体感觉皮层；前扣带皮层；慢性痒；磁共振成像

英文摘要： Itch is a complex and unpleasant sensory experience that induces the urge to scratch. Nearly all kinds of inflammatory skin diseases are accompanied by itch sensation. Some systemic diseases also have unbearable pruritus.However, the mechanism of itch remains unclear, which results in the poor treatment of itch in clinic. Accumulating evidences show that there are itch specific neurons in DRG and spinal cord. Previous studies showed that pruritogens specificly activated a subpopulation of unmylinated C fiber in the skin. A population of neurons in the lamina I layer of spinal cord dorsal horn also can be activated by pruritogens specificly. Up to now, little is known about how our brain perceive and process itch signals. In the present study, we will first explore the role of primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the processing of itch sensation by in vivo electrophysiological technique and pharmacological experiment. SI and ACC are crucial cortical areas involved in the perception of pain. We assume that SI and ACC also have important role in the processing of itch sensation. In addition, we will identify the character of itch-responsive neurons in SI and ACC by observing the response of those neurons to itch stimulation as well as other various stimulations such as touch, b

英文关键词： itch；primary somatosensory cortex；anterior cingulate cortex；chronic itch；maganetic resonance imaging