In this paper we showed that peripheral input drives spontaneous thalamic discharges in neuropathic rats.

Using in vivo single unit recordings, we provide evidence that ongoing activity in primary afferent fibres drives spontaneous thalamic firing after spinal nerve injury and` that oxcarbazepine through a peripheral mechanism exhibits modality-selective inhibitory effects on sensory neuronal processing. We showed that inhibitory effects of lidocaine and oxcarbazepine in a rat model of neuropathy resemble the clinical observations in an irritable nociceptor patient subgroup and approves a mechanism-based rationale for bench-to-bedside translation when screening novel drugs. Interestingly, activity of deep dorsal horn wide-dynamic range neurons is comparable to that in sham-operated animals, suggestive of potentially different ascending pathway involved in driving spontaneous thalamic discharges in neuropathic rats.

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