Articles

  • the Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Article

Original

Exp Neurobiol 2006; 15(2): 49-53

Published online December 31, 2006

© The Korean Society for Brain and Neural Sciences

Hyperthermia-induced Changes of Afferent Sensory Transmission to the SI Cortex of Anesthetized Rats

Oh-Bin Kwon and Hyung-Cheul Shin*

Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon 200-702, Korea

Correspondence to: *To whom correspondence should be addressed.
TEL: 82-33-248-2585, FAX: 82-33-255-1640
e-mail: hcshin@hallym.ac.kr

Abstract

The effects of hyperthemia on the afferent sensory transmission to neurons in the primary somatosensory (SI) cortex were determined in anesthetized rats. Afferent sensory transmission evoked by electrical stimulation to the forepaw area was not significantly changed during gradual heating to 42oC and subsequent recovery to normal body temperature. However, afferent transmission was significantly elevated (17∼23%) when body temperature was maintained steadily at 42oC of hyperthermia. These results suggest that differential changes of afferent sensory transmission to the somatosensory cortex may occur between short period of body temperature elevation and sustained hyperthermia.

Keywords: hyperthermia, SI cortex, sensory transmission