The implementation of the Neuroid in the Gate Control System leads to new ideas about pain processing
- Authors
- Silva Bustillos, Ricardo Jos?
- Format
- Article
- Status
- publishedVersion
- Description
INTRODUCTION: Several theories have been proposed to elucidate the mechanisms related with pain perception, among which, the Gate Control Theory (GCT) provides one of the most explicit explanations. This theory, as elegantly conceived, is unable to explain how the Frequency-Intensity (F-I) curves exhibited by A?- and C-fibres influence pain processing. In this paper, a novel neuron-model known as the Neuroid, which emphasizes the functional rather the physiological character of nerve cells, was used as the main building block to replicate the Gate Control System (GCS). METHODS: Two A?-fibre models were built: one model that preserved the paradoxical relation between the activation threshold and the F-I curve slope, and one model based on the hypothetical average response across the receptive field. RESULTS: The results suggest that the average response of the A?-fibres does not increase monotonically but reaches a plateau for high intensity stimuli. In addition, it was seen that activation of C-fibres does not necessarily imply the activation of projection neurons and, therefore, the onset of pain sensation. Also, we observed that the activation of A?-fibres may both, decrease and increase the activity of the projections neurons, an aspect which has not been directly described in previous works. CONCLUSION: Hypothetical implications arise as a consequence of the implementation of the Neuroid, specifically, about the correlation between the intensity of stimulation and the physiological pain threshold.
Universidad de Guayaquil
https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84885051035&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&st1=
- Publication Year
- 2013
- Language
- eng
- Topic
- GATE CONTROL THEORY
NEURON-MODEL
FREQUENCY-INTENSITY CURVE
PAIN MODULATION
- Repository
- Repositorio SENESCYT
- Rights
- openAccess
- License
- openAccess