Charles Vierck | University of Florida (original) (raw)
Papers by Charles Vierck
Pain Research and Treatment, 2012
Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2009
Psychonomic Science, 1966
ABSTRACT Gravid female rats were made hypoxic on the eighth or twentieth day of term. Their proge... more ABSTRACT Gravid female rats were made hypoxic on the eighth or twentieth day of term. Their progeny were found to be more active in an avoidance shuttle box. These results are contrasted to similar studies measuring activity in non-noxious circumstances. Also, the experimental Ss were found to be hypoemotional in comparison to their controls as measured by a rating scale and weight loss during avoidance training. The offspring of animals treated on the eighth day of gestation were less emotional than those receiving treatment on the twentieth day, confirming other studies demonstrating behavioral differences linked to prenatal age at treatment.
Cordotomy is a surgical procedure introduced in the early 1900s for reduction of chronic intracta... more Cordotomy is a surgical procedure introduced in the early 1900s for reduction of chronic intractable pain in humans. An anterolateral column of spinal white matter is cut or coagulated at a spinal level above and contralateral to a source of clinical pain, intentionally interrupting the spinothalamic tract. For weeks, months or years after successful interruption of ascending pathways in the anterolateral column, pain and temperature sensations are diminished contralaterally over dermatomes beginning several segments below (caudal) to the lesion. The reduction of pain is apparent for clinical pain and for nociceptive stimulation of humans, other primates and mammals (Vierck et al. 1986; Vierck et al. 1995; White and Sweet 1969).
Pain Research and Treatment, 2012
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by pain referred to deep tissues. Diagnosis and trea... more Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by pain referred to deep tissues. Diagnosis and treatment of FMS are complicated by a variable coexistence with regional pain, fatigue, sleep disruption, difficulty with mentation, and depression. The widespread, deep pain of FMS can be a consequence of chronic psychological stress with autonomic dysregulation. Stress acts centrally to facilitate pain and acts peripherally, via sympathetic vasoconstriction, to establish painful muscular ischemia. FMS pain, with or without a coexistent regional pain condition, is stressful, setting up a vicious circle of reciprocal interaction. Also, stress interacts reciprocally with systems of control over depression, mentation, and sleep, establishing FMS as a multiple-system disorder. Thus, stress and the ischemic pain it generates are fundamental to the multiple disorders of FMS, and a therapeutic procedure that attenuates stress and peripheral vasoconstriction should be highly beneficial for FMS. Physical exercise has been shown to counteract peripheral vasoconstriction and to attenuate stress, depression, and fatigue and improve mentation and sleep quality. Thus, exercise can interrupt the reciprocal interactions between psychological stress and each of the multiple-system disorders of FMS. The large literature supporting these conclusions indicates that exercise should be considered strongly as a first-line approach to FMS therapy.
Encyclopedia of Pain, 2007
ABSTRACT Systemic morphine activates opiate receptors through!!!!!out the nervous system, attenua... more ABSTRACT Systemic morphine activates opiate receptors through!!!!!out the nervous system, attenuating a clinically important component of pain sensations and modulating a variety of pain reactions. Due to these effects, opiate agonists are the prototypical pharmacological treatment for many chronic pain conditions. Without addressing actions or relative potencies of opiate agonists acting at different receptors, effects of systemic administration of agonists will be outlined. These actions depend upon dosage, which is an important experimental and clinical consideration.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2015
Testing of reflexes such as flexion/withdrawal or licking/guarding is well established as the sta... more Testing of reflexes such as flexion/withdrawal or licking/guarding is well established as the standard for evaluating nociceptive sensitivity and its modulation in preclinical investigations of laboratory animals. Concerns about this approach have been dismissed for practical reasons - reflex testing requires no training of the animals; it is simple to instrument; and responses are characterized by observers as latencies or thresholds for evocation. In order to evaluate this method, the present review summarizes a series of experiments in which reflex and operant escape responding are compared in normal animals and following surgical models of neuropathic pain or pharmacological intervention for pain. Particular attention is paid to relationships between reflex and escape responding and information on the pain sensitivity of normal human subjects or patients with pain. Numerous disparities between results for reflex and operant escape measures are described, but the results of opera...
Pain, 1999
The effects of spinal lesions on reactions of rats to nociceptive electrocutaneous stimulation (E... more The effects of spinal lesions on reactions of rats to nociceptive electrocutaneous stimulation (ES) were evaluated by measuring the speed of operant escape responses, the magnitude of hindlimb flexion reflexes and the amplitude of reflex vocalizations. ES intensities ranging from 0.1 to 0.8mA were delivered to either hindpaw of rats that were trained to terminate stimulation (perform an escape response) with one forelimb. Unilateral thoracic lesions within the lateral column were produced by surgically transecting axons, with or without insertion of blood-soaked Gelfoam into the lesion cavity. The latter procedure was intended to standardize and maximize hemotoxic damage to the gray matter at the lesion site. The speed of conscious escape responses to all intensities was reduced contralaterally and to comparable extents following each type of lesion. Involvement of mid-lateral axons was an important determinant of contralateral deficits in escape responding. Escape speed for ipsilat...
Somatosensory & Motor Research, 1998
Transection of the dorsal spinal column in monkeys has been previously shown to spare detection, ... more Transection of the dorsal spinal column in monkeys has been previously shown to spare detection, localization and a variety of discriminations between spatial attributes of tactile stimuli. In contrast, performance on certain tests involving stimulus sequences is substantially impaired, such as tactile direction sensitivity and frequency discrimination. The present study extends these findings to show that a repetitive cutaneous stimulus is undetectable following complete interruption of the ipsilateral dorsal column. Macaca arctoides monkeys were trained to discriminate between different durations of 10 Hz indentation of the glabrous skin of one foot. Preoperatively, these animals could discriminate reliably between three pulses (the standard stimulus duration of 200 ms) and comparison trains of six or more pulses (500 ms or more). Following incomplete interruption of the ipsilateral dorsal column of one monkey, discrimination of the duration of stimulation was unimpaired. However, complete lesions of the ipsilateral dorsal column eliminated performance above the criterion of 75% correct responses for approximately 1 year of postoperative testing of three monkeys. Comparison stimuli of as many as 38 pulses (3.7 s) were utilized during postoperative testing. The inability to detect repetitive stimulation is hypothesized to be related to abnormal intracortical inhibition that has been demonstrated to occur within the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) of monkeys after interruption of the contralateral dorsal column.
Macaca nemestrinamonkeys received unilateral interruption of the spinothalamic tract, producing c... more Macaca nemestrinamonkeys received unilateral interruption of the spinothalamic tract, producing contralateral hypal- gesia and a bilateral decrease in amplitude of the flexion reflex. These effects on operant escape and reflex re- sponses to electrocutaneous stimulation (ES) were moni- tored for months to evaluate relationships between the ex- tent of each lesion and the presence or absence of recovery from the early postoperative deficits. Before surgery, the animals were trained to perform an operant response that terminated ES to the lateral calf of either leg. The durations of ES tolerated by each monkey were inversely related to stimulus intensities within the pain sensitivity range of human subjects. The vigor of operant escape responses and the frequency of intertrial pulls of the manipulandum were directly related to stimulus intensity. Following anterolateral chordotomy at an upper thoracic level, these measures revealed a contralateral hypalgesia for each animal. Operant r...
Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2001
The impact of circulating ovarian hormones on nociceptive behaviors elicited by phasic and tonic ... more The impact of circulating ovarian hormones on nociceptive behaviors elicited by phasic and tonic stimuli was evaluated in rats using two behavioral tests: an operant escape task and the formalin test. The operant escape task was structured to separately evaluate hindlimb flexion reflexes, the latency of escape, and the amplitude of peak vocalization to a series of phasic electrocutaneous stimuli (0.05-0.8 mA), whereas the formalin test evaluated nociceptive behaviors elicited by tonic stimulation following a subcutaneous injection of dilute formalin (1%). Hindlimb reflex amplitude, escape latency, and peak vocalization varied across the estrous cycle, such that rats were most sensitive to electrical stimuli during proestrus (reflex and escape latency) and diestrus (vocalization). Furthermore, morphine-induced (3 mg/kg sc) attenuation of hindlimb reflex amplitude was sensitive to estrous cycling. During proestrus, morphine produced less attenuation of hindlimb reflex amplitude than during nonproestrus phases. However, estrous cycling did not alter nociceptive behaviors elicited by 1% formalin. These data support the notion that circulating ovarian hormones may differentially modulate behaviors associated with phasic and tonic pain.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1965
ABSTRACT Housemice of 5 strains were tested repeatedly in a runway apparatus so arranged that bot... more ABSTRACT Housemice of 5 strains were tested repeatedly in a runway apparatus so arranged that both dimensions of gross activity could be measured. Exploratory performances showed the expected decline both within and among days of testing. On the other hand, general activity did not decrease among days. Moreover, the magnitude of correlation between the 2 behaviors was minimal except for one strain. These data are construed as definitive in establishing the separateness of the 2 categories of gross activity: general activity and exploratory behavior. Moreover, these data indicate that maze learning drug response differences reported for these strains cannot be explained by differences in activity variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Neuroscience Letters, 2004
Using a conjugate of substance P and the ribosome-inactivating protein saporin, neurons expressin... more Using a conjugate of substance P and the ribosome-inactivating protein saporin, neurons expressing the neurokinin-1 receptor in lamina I of the spinal cord were targeted to determine their role in the expression of a spontaneous pain behavior following intraspinal injections of quisqualic acid in the rat. Treatment was carried out at the time of injury in order to prevent the onset of the behavior, and following onset in order to evaluate the potential clinical utility of this intervention. Treatment at the time of injury resulted in significant decreases in onsettime and severity of pain behavior, while treatment at the time of onset led to a significant reduction of the spontaneous self-directed behavior. The results suggest that the substrate for at-level pain following spinal cord injury includes a population of spinal neurons expressing the neurokinin-1 receptor in the superficial laminae of the spinal cord. q
Pain Research and Treatment, 2012
Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2009
Psychonomic Science, 1966
ABSTRACT Gravid female rats were made hypoxic on the eighth or twentieth day of term. Their proge... more ABSTRACT Gravid female rats were made hypoxic on the eighth or twentieth day of term. Their progeny were found to be more active in an avoidance shuttle box. These results are contrasted to similar studies measuring activity in non-noxious circumstances. Also, the experimental Ss were found to be hypoemotional in comparison to their controls as measured by a rating scale and weight loss during avoidance training. The offspring of animals treated on the eighth day of gestation were less emotional than those receiving treatment on the twentieth day, confirming other studies demonstrating behavioral differences linked to prenatal age at treatment.
Cordotomy is a surgical procedure introduced in the early 1900s for reduction of chronic intracta... more Cordotomy is a surgical procedure introduced in the early 1900s for reduction of chronic intractable pain in humans. An anterolateral column of spinal white matter is cut or coagulated at a spinal level above and contralateral to a source of clinical pain, intentionally interrupting the spinothalamic tract. For weeks, months or years after successful interruption of ascending pathways in the anterolateral column, pain and temperature sensations are diminished contralaterally over dermatomes beginning several segments below (caudal) to the lesion. The reduction of pain is apparent for clinical pain and for nociceptive stimulation of humans, other primates and mammals (Vierck et al. 1986; Vierck et al. 1995; White and Sweet 1969).
Pain Research and Treatment, 2012
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by pain referred to deep tissues. Diagnosis and trea... more Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is characterized by pain referred to deep tissues. Diagnosis and treatment of FMS are complicated by a variable coexistence with regional pain, fatigue, sleep disruption, difficulty with mentation, and depression. The widespread, deep pain of FMS can be a consequence of chronic psychological stress with autonomic dysregulation. Stress acts centrally to facilitate pain and acts peripherally, via sympathetic vasoconstriction, to establish painful muscular ischemia. FMS pain, with or without a coexistent regional pain condition, is stressful, setting up a vicious circle of reciprocal interaction. Also, stress interacts reciprocally with systems of control over depression, mentation, and sleep, establishing FMS as a multiple-system disorder. Thus, stress and the ischemic pain it generates are fundamental to the multiple disorders of FMS, and a therapeutic procedure that attenuates stress and peripheral vasoconstriction should be highly beneficial for FMS. Physical exercise has been shown to counteract peripheral vasoconstriction and to attenuate stress, depression, and fatigue and improve mentation and sleep quality. Thus, exercise can interrupt the reciprocal interactions between psychological stress and each of the multiple-system disorders of FMS. The large literature supporting these conclusions indicates that exercise should be considered strongly as a first-line approach to FMS therapy.
Encyclopedia of Pain, 2007
ABSTRACT Systemic morphine activates opiate receptors through!!!!!out the nervous system, attenua... more ABSTRACT Systemic morphine activates opiate receptors through!!!!!out the nervous system, attenuating a clinically important component of pain sensations and modulating a variety of pain reactions. Due to these effects, opiate agonists are the prototypical pharmacological treatment for many chronic pain conditions. Without addressing actions or relative potencies of opiate agonists acting at different receptors, effects of systemic administration of agonists will be outlined. These actions depend upon dosage, which is an important experimental and clinical consideration.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2015
Testing of reflexes such as flexion/withdrawal or licking/guarding is well established as the sta... more Testing of reflexes such as flexion/withdrawal or licking/guarding is well established as the standard for evaluating nociceptive sensitivity and its modulation in preclinical investigations of laboratory animals. Concerns about this approach have been dismissed for practical reasons - reflex testing requires no training of the animals; it is simple to instrument; and responses are characterized by observers as latencies or thresholds for evocation. In order to evaluate this method, the present review summarizes a series of experiments in which reflex and operant escape responding are compared in normal animals and following surgical models of neuropathic pain or pharmacological intervention for pain. Particular attention is paid to relationships between reflex and escape responding and information on the pain sensitivity of normal human subjects or patients with pain. Numerous disparities between results for reflex and operant escape measures are described, but the results of opera...
Pain, 1999
The effects of spinal lesions on reactions of rats to nociceptive electrocutaneous stimulation (E... more The effects of spinal lesions on reactions of rats to nociceptive electrocutaneous stimulation (ES) were evaluated by measuring the speed of operant escape responses, the magnitude of hindlimb flexion reflexes and the amplitude of reflex vocalizations. ES intensities ranging from 0.1 to 0.8mA were delivered to either hindpaw of rats that were trained to terminate stimulation (perform an escape response) with one forelimb. Unilateral thoracic lesions within the lateral column were produced by surgically transecting axons, with or without insertion of blood-soaked Gelfoam into the lesion cavity. The latter procedure was intended to standardize and maximize hemotoxic damage to the gray matter at the lesion site. The speed of conscious escape responses to all intensities was reduced contralaterally and to comparable extents following each type of lesion. Involvement of mid-lateral axons was an important determinant of contralateral deficits in escape responding. Escape speed for ipsilat...
Somatosensory & Motor Research, 1998
Transection of the dorsal spinal column in monkeys has been previously shown to spare detection, ... more Transection of the dorsal spinal column in monkeys has been previously shown to spare detection, localization and a variety of discriminations between spatial attributes of tactile stimuli. In contrast, performance on certain tests involving stimulus sequences is substantially impaired, such as tactile direction sensitivity and frequency discrimination. The present study extends these findings to show that a repetitive cutaneous stimulus is undetectable following complete interruption of the ipsilateral dorsal column. Macaca arctoides monkeys were trained to discriminate between different durations of 10 Hz indentation of the glabrous skin of one foot. Preoperatively, these animals could discriminate reliably between three pulses (the standard stimulus duration of 200 ms) and comparison trains of six or more pulses (500 ms or more). Following incomplete interruption of the ipsilateral dorsal column of one monkey, discrimination of the duration of stimulation was unimpaired. However, complete lesions of the ipsilateral dorsal column eliminated performance above the criterion of 75% correct responses for approximately 1 year of postoperative testing of three monkeys. Comparison stimuli of as many as 38 pulses (3.7 s) were utilized during postoperative testing. The inability to detect repetitive stimulation is hypothesized to be related to abnormal intracortical inhibition that has been demonstrated to occur within the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) of monkeys after interruption of the contralateral dorsal column.
Macaca nemestrinamonkeys received unilateral interruption of the spinothalamic tract, producing c... more Macaca nemestrinamonkeys received unilateral interruption of the spinothalamic tract, producing contralateral hypal- gesia and a bilateral decrease in amplitude of the flexion reflex. These effects on operant escape and reflex re- sponses to electrocutaneous stimulation (ES) were moni- tored for months to evaluate relationships between the ex- tent of each lesion and the presence or absence of recovery from the early postoperative deficits. Before surgery, the animals were trained to perform an operant response that terminated ES to the lateral calf of either leg. The durations of ES tolerated by each monkey were inversely related to stimulus intensities within the pain sensitivity range of human subjects. The vigor of operant escape responses and the frequency of intertrial pulls of the manipulandum were directly related to stimulus intensity. Following anterolateral chordotomy at an upper thoracic level, these measures revealed a contralateral hypalgesia for each animal. Operant r...
Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2001
The impact of circulating ovarian hormones on nociceptive behaviors elicited by phasic and tonic ... more The impact of circulating ovarian hormones on nociceptive behaviors elicited by phasic and tonic stimuli was evaluated in rats using two behavioral tests: an operant escape task and the formalin test. The operant escape task was structured to separately evaluate hindlimb flexion reflexes, the latency of escape, and the amplitude of peak vocalization to a series of phasic electrocutaneous stimuli (0.05-0.8 mA), whereas the formalin test evaluated nociceptive behaviors elicited by tonic stimulation following a subcutaneous injection of dilute formalin (1%). Hindlimb reflex amplitude, escape latency, and peak vocalization varied across the estrous cycle, such that rats were most sensitive to electrical stimuli during proestrus (reflex and escape latency) and diestrus (vocalization). Furthermore, morphine-induced (3 mg/kg sc) attenuation of hindlimb reflex amplitude was sensitive to estrous cycling. During proestrus, morphine produced less attenuation of hindlimb reflex amplitude than during nonproestrus phases. However, estrous cycling did not alter nociceptive behaviors elicited by 1% formalin. These data support the notion that circulating ovarian hormones may differentially modulate behaviors associated with phasic and tonic pain.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1965
ABSTRACT Housemice of 5 strains were tested repeatedly in a runway apparatus so arranged that bot... more ABSTRACT Housemice of 5 strains were tested repeatedly in a runway apparatus so arranged that both dimensions of gross activity could be measured. Exploratory performances showed the expected decline both within and among days of testing. On the other hand, general activity did not decrease among days. Moreover, the magnitude of correlation between the 2 behaviors was minimal except for one strain. These data are construed as definitive in establishing the separateness of the 2 categories of gross activity: general activity and exploratory behavior. Moreover, these data indicate that maze learning drug response differences reported for these strains cannot be explained by differences in activity variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Neuroscience Letters, 2004
Using a conjugate of substance P and the ribosome-inactivating protein saporin, neurons expressin... more Using a conjugate of substance P and the ribosome-inactivating protein saporin, neurons expressing the neurokinin-1 receptor in lamina I of the spinal cord were targeted to determine their role in the expression of a spontaneous pain behavior following intraspinal injections of quisqualic acid in the rat. Treatment was carried out at the time of injury in order to prevent the onset of the behavior, and following onset in order to evaluate the potential clinical utility of this intervention. Treatment at the time of injury resulted in significant decreases in onsettime and severity of pain behavior, while treatment at the time of onset led to a significant reduction of the spontaneous self-directed behavior. The results suggest that the substrate for at-level pain following spinal cord injury includes a population of spinal neurons expressing the neurokinin-1 receptor in the superficial laminae of the spinal cord. q