Neural Mechanisms of Temporomandibular Joint and Masticatory Muscle Pain
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The underlying nociceptive mechanisms in temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and masticatory muscles in many pain conditions are still unclear, largely due to the limited study of peripheral and central neural mechanisms affecting craniofacial musculoskeletal tissues. This study provided evidence in support of Hypothesis 1: Peripheral glutamatergic and capsaicin-sensitive mechanisms modulate the properties of primary afferents and brainstem neurons processing deep craniofacial nociceptive information. Effects of glutamate and capsaicin injected into the receptive field of deep craniofacial nociceptive afferents or TMJ of TMJ-responsive nociceptive neurons in trigeminal subnucleus caudalis/upper cervical cord (Vc/UCC) were studied in halothane-anesthetized rats. When injected alone, glutamate and capsaicin activated and induced peripheral sensitization in many afferents. Following glutamate injection, capsaicin-evoked activity was greater than that evoked by capsaicin alone, whereas following capsaicin injection, glutamate-evoked responses were similar to those of glutamate alone. When injected alone, glutamate and capsaicin also activated and induced central sensitization in most Vc/UCC neurons. Following glutamate injection, capsaicin evoked greater activity and less sensitization compared with capsaicin alone, whereas following capsaicin, glutamate was less effective in activating and sensitizing most Vc/UCC neurons. This apparent desensitizing effect of capsaicin on glutamate-evoked excitability of Vc/UCC neurons contrasts with the lack of capsaicin-induced modulation of glutamate-evoked afferent excitability, suggesting that peripheral and central sensitization may be differentially involved in the nociceptive effects of glutamate and capsaicin applied to deep craniofacial tissues. Further evidence of glutamate-capsaicin interactions was documented in the attenuation by TMJ pre-injection of glutamate receptor antagonists of jaw muscle activity reflexly evoked by TMJ injection of capsaicin. Moreover, additional findings support Hypothesis 2: Surgical cutaneous incision modulates the properties of brainstem neurons processing deep craniofacial nociceptive information. TMJ-responsive nociceptive Vc/UCC neurons could be activated by surgical incision of the skin overlying the TMJ and this incision-induced afferent barrage caused nociceptive neurons to be temporarily refractory to further capsaicin-induced central sensitization. These novel findings suggest that peripheral glutamate and capsaicin receptor mechanisms as well as surgical cutaneous incision may be involved in the nociceptive processing of deep craniofacial afferent inputs and may interact to modulate both activation as well as sensitization evoked from these tissues.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".