Microneurography as a tool to study the function of individual C-fiber afferents in humans: responses from nociceptors, thermoreceptors, and mechanoreceptors

Rochelle Ackerley (1, 2) , Roger Holmes Watkins (2)

1 NSC - Neurosciences sensorielles et cognitives
2 Department of Physiology

The technique of microneurography—recording neural traffic from nerves in awake humans—has provided us with unrivaled insights into afferent and efferent processes in the peripheral nervous system for over 50 years. We review the use of microneurography to study single C-fiber afferents and provide an overview of the knowledge gained, with views to future investigations. C-fibers have slowly conducting, thin-diameter, unmyelinated axons and make up the majority of the fibers in peripheral nerves (~80%). With the use of microneurography in humans, C-fiber afferents have been differentiated into discrete subclasses that encode specific qualities of stimuli on the skin, and their functional roles have been investigated. Afferent somatosensory information provided by C-fibers underpins various positive and negative affective sensations from the periphery, including mechanical, thermal, and chemical pain (C-nociceptors), temperature (C-thermoreceptors), and positive affective aspects of touch (C-tactile afferents). Insights from microneurographic investigations have revealed the complexity of the C-fiber system, methods for delineating fundamental C-fiber populations in a translational manner, how C-fiber firing can be used to identify nerve deficits in pathological states, and how the responses from C-fibers may be modified to change sensory percepts, including decreasing pain. Understanding these processes may lead to future medical interventions to diagnose and treat C-fiber dysfunction.

Domaines: Neurosciences; Physiologie [q-bio.TO]

Rochelle Ackerley, Roger Holmes Watkins. Microneurography as a tool to study the function of individual C-fiber afferents in humans: responses from nociceptors, thermoreceptors, and mechanoreceptors. Journal of Neurophysiology, 2018, 120 (6), pp.2834-2846. ⟨10.1152/jn.00109.2018⟩. ⟨hal-02048326⟩