Max Planck Research Group Pain Perception, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Research Group Neural Interactions and Dynamics, Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
PLoS Biol. 2024 Oct 31;22(10):e3002828. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002828. eCollection 2024 Oct.
The spinal cord is of fundamental importance for integrative processing in brain-body communication, yet routine noninvasive recordings in humans are hindered by vast methodological challenges. Here, we overcome these challenges by developing an easy-to-use electrophysiological approach based on high-density multichannel spinal recordings combined with multivariate spatial-filtering analyses. These advances enable a spatiotemporal characterization of spinal cord responses and demonstrate a sensitivity that permits assessing even single-trial responses. To furthermore enable the study of integrative processing along the neural processing hierarchy in somatosensation, we expand this approach by simultaneous peripheral, spinal, and cortical recordings and provide direct evidence that bottom-up integrative processing occurs already within the spinal cord and thus after the first synaptic relay in the central nervous system. Finally, we demonstrate the versatility of this approach by providing noninvasive recordings of nociceptive spinal cord responses during heat-pain stimulation. Beyond establishing a new window on human spinal cord function at millisecond timescale, this work provides the foundation to study brain-body communication in its entirety in health and disease.
脊髓对于脑-体通讯中的综合处理至关重要，但常规的非侵入性人体记录受到广泛的方法学挑战的阻碍。在这里，我们通过开发一种基于高密度多通道脊髓记录和多元空间滤波分析的易于使用的电生理方法克服了这些挑战。这些进展使我们能够对脊髓反应进行时空特征化，并证明了敏感性，甚至可以评估单次反应。为了进一步研究躯体感觉中的神经处理层次结构中的综合处理，我们通过同时进行外周、脊髓和皮层记录来扩展这种方法，并提供直接证据表明，自上而下的综合处理已经发生在脊髓中，因此发生在中枢神经系统的第一个突触中继之后。最后，我们通过提供热痛刺激期间伤害性脊髓反应的非侵入性记录来证明这种方法的多功能性。除了在毫秒时间尺度上为人类脊髓功能建立新的窗口外，这项工作还为在健康和疾病中研究脑-体通讯提供了基础。
