Behavioural brain research
-
Comparative Study
Differentiation between capsaicin-induced allodynia and hyperalgesia using a thermal operant assay.
Investigations of new analgesic treatments ideally are coupled with the use of compassionate methods for pain testing in animals. Recently, we described a novel operant thermal testing device that can be used to quantify orofacial pain. The objective of the current study was to differentiate thermal allodynia from hyperalgesia using this operant thermal assay. ⋯ The temporal profile for completing the task was also significantly altered following capsaicin treatment. These data demonstrate that using the operant orofacial assay in conjunction with capsaicin cream can provide a reproducible, sensitive, minimally invasive, and powerful approach for quantifying and studying enhanced thermal pain within the trigeminal system. This technique provides an alternative to reflex tests of orofacial sensitivity, and it presents a pivotal link for translating basic pain research into clinic trial strategies.
-
Comparative Study
Administration of raloxifene reduces sensorimotor and working memory deficits following traumatic brain injury.
Hormonal differences between males and females have surfaced as a crucial component in the search for effective treatments after experimental models of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Recent findings have shown that selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) may have therapeutic benefit. The present study examined the effects of raloxifene, a SERM, on functional recovery after bilateral cortical contusion injury (bCCI) or sham procedure. ⋯ Raloxifene treatment also did not result in a significant reduction in the size of the lesion cavity. Thus, the task-dependent improvements seen following raloxifene treatment do not appear to be the result of cortical neuroprotection. However, these results suggest that raloxifene improves functional outcome following bCCI and may present an interesting avenue for future research.
-
Lesions of the gustatory thalamus (GT) prevent the occurrence of between-session contrast effects (i.e., anticipatory negative contrast and consummatory successive negative contrast [cSNC]) involving liquid rewards. These deficits are attributed to a disruption of the reward comparison mechanism that computes the value of the current reward relative to the expected reward. Instrumental successive negative contrast (iSNC), which occurs following a surprising reduction in the magnitude of a solid food reward, is also keyed off the detection of a disparity between the value of the expected and actual rewards. ⋯ In Experiment 1, both GT-lesioned and neurologically intact rats trained with 10 food pellets and shifted to one food pellet showed a significant iSNC effect. In Experiment 2, the same GT-lesioned rats failed to show cSNC when shifted from 1.0M sucrose to 0.15% sodium saccharin. The obtained pattern of results suggests that separate reward comparison mechanisms with different neural substrates underlie expression of cSNC and iSNC.