title: Central mechanisms of vascular headaches.
abstract: The intracranial blood vessels supplying the dura and brain are innervated by sensory afferents from the trigeminal nerve. These fibers are believed to be responsible for conveying the pain associated with vascular head pain such as migraines. This paper reviews recently published data describing the existence of neurons within the cat trigeminal nucleus and thalamus that respond to electrical stimulation of the middle meningeal artery and superior sagittal sinus. Almost all of these neurons receive convergent input from the facial skin and most of the receptive fields include the periorbital region. On the basis of their cutaneous inputs, most of the neurons are classified as nociceptive. The characteristics of these cerebrovascular-activated neurons are consistent with their role in mediating vascular head pains and with the typical referral of such pains in man to the orbital region. This paper also presents preliminary results of recordings from rat trigeminal ganglion neurons activated by electrical stimulation of the middle meningeal artery and sagittal sinus. The latencies of activation of these neurons are indicative of conduction in slowly conducting myelinated axons and in unmyelinated axons. Some of the neurons could also be activated by mechanical stimuli applied to the vessels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Ont., Canada.
authors.forename: J O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Dostrovsky
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawakita
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003315:Cornea / Q000294:innervation; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D005724:Ganglia / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D014276:Trigeminal Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D014653:Vascular Headaches / Q000503:physiopathology*