Japan is well-renowned in the international community for its expertise in high-capacity, punctual railway operations. Particularly the high-speed trains, the Shinkansen, are very well known and respected internationally, but the knowledge outside Japan is more limited regarding more conventional lines, commuter trains, and the metro. Despite this, during rush hours trains in the Tokyo area can be

Time-dependent changes of nociceptive inhibition of hindlimb withdrawal reflex (WR) pathways were investigated in acute decerebrate spinal rats. Electromyographic recordings of WR of peroneus longus and extensor digitorum longus muscles were made. For each muscle, both short and long latency WR evoked by subcutaneous electrical stimulation and WR evoked by noxious pinch could be inhibited by noxio

The organization of the somatosensory input to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord has for a long time been viewed as a somatotopical map of the body that is adult-like already at birth. Recent studies indicate, however, that the adult somatotopic organization in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord emerges from an initial floating and diffuse body representation with many inappropriate connections t

PurposeReports from 3-T vessel wall MRI imaging have shown contrast enhancement following thrombectomy for acute stroke, suggesting potential intimal damage. Comparisons have shown higher SNR and more lesions detected by vessel wall imaging when using 7 T compared with 3 T. The aim of this study was to investigate the vessel walls after stent retriever thrombectomy using high-resolution vessel wal

To clarify the mechanisms of allodynia we have examined whether 'wind- up' of nociceptive withdrawal reflexes (NWR), a phenomenon characteristic of nociceptive C fiber spinal processing, can be mimicked by stimulation of tactile Aβ fibers in monoarthritic decerebrate spinal rats. Knee joint monoarthritis was induced by carrageenan/kaolin under halothane anaesthesia 5 h before recordings. In arthri

An in vitro model was developed to characterize the electrical properties of silicon microfabricated recording electrodes, using a Cu-wire mimicing a neural signal source. Phosphorous doped electrodes were used to achieve an all silicon device. The model was used to study signal amplitude as a function of distance between the electrode surface and the signal source. Signal crosstalk to neighbourin

The use of motor reactions including spinal motor mechanisms, such as tail-flick, hot plate test, and flexion reflexes, in research on pain and analgesia requires some precautions, and results should be interpreted with caution. Nocifensive specificity and analgesic selectivity cannot be established unequivocally by only comparing reflexes evoked by noxious stimuli with monosynaptic reflexes. Rath

An antagonist to amino acid evoked excitation, γ-d-glutamylglycine (γ-DGG) inhibits, dose-dependently, nociceptive C-fibre evoked field potentials and neuronal discharges in single nociceptive neurons in rat spinal cord. It is concluded that amino acids are possible transmitter substance(s) in nociceptive afferent C-fibres. These results might be useful for development of centrally acting analgesi