Control of Nociceptive Transmission in the Spinal Cord

1 Introduction: Centrifugal Control of Sensory Pathways.- 1.1 General Background.- 1.2 Functional Implieations of Centrifugal Control Systems.- 1.3 Somatosensory Pathways Known to be Subject to Descending Controls.- 1.4 Plan for the Review.- 1.5 Conclusions.- 2 Behavioral Evidence for Descending Control of Nociceptive Transmission.- 2.1 Measures of Analgesia.- 2.1.1 Background.- 2.1.2 Reflex Tests.- 2.1.3 Other Behavioral Responses.- 2.1.4 Human Studies.- 2.1.5 Neural Correlates of Analgesia.- 2.1.6 Analgesia Tests in Studies of Pain Mechanisms.- 2.2 Stimulation-Produced Analgesia.- 2.3 Opiate and Opioid Analgesia.- 2.4 Analgesia from Peripheral Stimulation.- 2.5 Stress-Induced Analgesia.- 2.6 Hypnotic Analgesia.- 2.7 Conclusions.- 3 Pharmacology of Analgesia Due to Descending Control Systems.- 3.1 Overview.- 3.2 Relationship Between SPA and Opiate Analgesia.- 3.3 Role of Monoamines in SPA.- 3.4 Role of Monoamines in Opiate Analgesia.- 3.5 Other Candidate Transmitted and Modulators.- 3.6 Pharmacology of Analgesia Due to Acupuncture and Transcutaneous Nerve Stimulation.- 3.7 Conclusions.- 4 Descending Control of the Flexion Reflex.- 4.1 Organization of the Flexion Reflex.- 4.2 Descending Pathways That Control the Flexion Reflex.- 4.3 Conclusions.- 5 Descending Control of Spinal Cord Nociceptive Neurons.- 5.1 Dorsal Horn Interneurons.- 5.2 Sensory Tract Cells.- 5.2.1 FRA-Activated-Tracts.- 5.2.2 Spinothalamic Tract.- 5.2.3 SpinocervicalTract.- 5.2.4 Other Tracts.- 5.3 Conclusions.- 6 Correlations Between the Descending Control of Spinal Cord Nociceptive Pathways and the Operation of the A nalgesia Systems.- 6.1 Flexion Reflex.- 6.2 Nociceptive Dorsal Horn Neurons.- 7 References.- 8 Subject Index.