Neurons were recorded in the parabrachial (PB) area, located in the dorsolateral region of the pons (with the use of extracellular micropipette), in the anesthetized rat. Parabrachioamygdaloid (PA) neurons (n = 67) were antidromically identified after stimulation in the centralis nucleus of the amygdala (Ce). The axons of these neurons exhibit a very slow conduction velocity, between 0.26 and 1.1 m/s, i.e., in the unmyelinated range. 2. These PA neurons were located in a restricted region of the PB area: the subnuclei external lateral (PBel) and external medial (PBem). A relative somatotopic organization was found in this region. 3. These units were separated into two groups: 1) a group of nociceptive-specific (NS) neurons (69%), which responded exclusively to noxious stimuli, and 2) a group of nonresponsive (NR) neurons (31%). 4. The NS neurons exhibited low or lacked spontaneous activity. They responded exclusively to mechanical (pinch or squeeze) and/or thermal (waterbath or waterjet greater than 44 degrees C) noxious stimuli with a marked and sustained activation with a rapid onset and generally without afterdischarge. Noxious thermal stimuli generally induced a stronger response than the noxious mechanical stimuli. These neurons exhibited a clear capacity to encode thermal stimuli in the noxious range: 1) the stimulus-response function was always positive and monotonic; 2) the slope of the curve progressively increased up to a maximum where it was very steep, then the steepness of the slope decreased close to the maximum response; and 3) the mean threshold was 44.1 +/- 2 degrees C, and the point of steepest slope of the mean curve was around 47 degrees C. 5. The excitatory receptive fields of the NS neurons were large in the majority (70%) of the cases and included several areas of the body. A more marked activation was often obtained from stimuli applied to one part of the body, denoted as the preferential receptive field (PRF). In the other cases (30%), the excitatory receptive field was relatively small (SRF) and restricted to one part of the body (the tail, a paw, a hemiface, or the tongue). Both the PRF and SRF were more often located on the contralateral side. In addition, noxious stimuli applied outside the excitatory receptive field were found to strongly inhibit the responses of NS neurons. 6. All the NS neurons responded to intense transcutaneous electrical stimulation applied to the PRF or SRF with two peaks of activation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
