Todd Andrew J
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Mol Pain. 2017 Jan;13:1744806917693003. doi: 10.1177/1744806917693003.
The spinal dorsal horn receives input from primary afferent axons, which terminate in a modality-specific fashion in different laminae. The incoming somatosensory information is processed through complex synaptic circuits involving excitatory and inhibitory interneurons, before being transmitted to the brain via projection neurons for conscious perception. The dorsal horn is important, firstly because changes in this region contribute to chronic pain states, and secondly because it contains potential targets for the development of new treatments for pain. However, at present, we have only a limited understanding of the neuronal circuitry within this region, and this is largely because of the difficulty in defining functional populations among the excitatory and inhibitory interneurons. The recent discovery of specific neurochemically defined interneuron populations, together with the development of molecular genetic techniques for altering neuronal function in vivo, are resulting in a dramatic improvement in our understanding of somatosensory processing at the spinal level.
脊髓背角接收来自初级传入轴突的输入，这些轴突以模式特异性方式终止于不同的板层。传入的体感信息在通过投射神经元传递到大脑进行有意识感知之前，先通过涉及兴奋性和抑制性中间神经元的复杂突触回路进行处理。背角很重要，首先是因为该区域的变化会导致慢性疼痛状态，其次是因为它包含开发新的疼痛治疗方法的潜在靶点。然而，目前我们对该区域内的神经元回路了解有限，这主要是因为难以在兴奋性和抑制性中间神经元中定义功能群体。最近发现了特定的神经化学定义的中间神经元群体，以及用于在体内改变神经元功能的分子遗传学技术的发展，正在极大地改善我们对脊髓水平体感处理的理解。
