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Biomedical subjects

H L Fields

Publications and source records attributed to H L Fields.

138 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1970

Superior colliculus: single unit responses to stimulation of visual cortex in the cat.

Electrical stimulation of area 18 of the cat visual cortex produces intense excitation of neurons in the superior colliculus. Excitation is followed by a period of decreased collicular responsiveness to light stimulation. These effects are seen in both directionally selective and nonselective units. The corticocollicular projection is retinotopically organized.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1970

Somatovisceral pathway: rapidly conducting fibers in the spinal cord.

Fibers that respond to distension of hollow viscera and to mechanical stimulation of somatic structures were found primarily near the ventromedian fissure of the upper lumbar spinal cord. These fibers could be directly excited by electrical stimulation at C(1). The average conduction velocity for these fibers was 68.6 meters per second.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence that disinhibition of brain stem neurones contributes to morphine analgesia.

Analgesia results when opiates are microinjected into the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM). This region, which includes the nucleus raphe magnus and the adjacent reticular formation, is rich in immunoreactive enkephalin-containing neurones and terminals, and contains neurones that project to the spinal cord dorsal horn where they inhibit identified nociceptive spinothalamic tract neurones. Although opiates have previously been reported either to excite or inhibit RVM cells, the possibility of an opiate effect being consistent within a physiologically defined subclass has not been examined. Recently we described a class of neurone in the RVM (the off-cell) that abruptly pauses just before a heat-evoked tail-flick reflex. If off-cells are made to fire continuously by direct electrical stimulation of the RVM, the tail-flick reflex does not occur. We report here that analgesic doses of morphine completely eliminate the pause in firing that precedes the tail-flick reflex. We propose that this disinhibition of off-cells in the RVM is a primary process contributing to opiate inhibition of nociceptor-induced reflexes.

Analgesia↗