Emergent Properties following Brain Injury: The Claustrum as a Major Component of a Pathway that Influences Nociceptive Thresholds to Foot Shock in Rats

Flinch (pain) thresholds for electric current delivered to the feet were correlated with the amount of necrosis within the diencephalon and telencephalon for rats in which seizures had been induced by lithium and pilocarpine about two months before the testing. The shared variance of the quantitative damage within the claustrum, the anterior part of the paraventricular nucleus of thalamus, (central) mediodorsal thalamus, and lateral amygdala (ventromedial part) explained 81% of the variance in the nociceptive (flinch) thresholds. A primary role of the claustrum within the neuropathways that mediate the response to the interoceptive and “painful” characteristics of stimuli is indicated. The concept of primary pathways versus “emergent” pathways subsequent to excitotoxic damage within the neuromatrix is discussed.