A. D. (Bud) Craig
James R. Atkinson Pain Research Scientist, Divisions of Neurosurgery and Neurobiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix AZ
Research Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, UACM
Ph. D., Cornell University
E-mail: bcraig@chw.edu
Research Interest:
Organization of ascending somatosensory pathways, particularly those for nociception and thermoreception, using several functional neuroanatomical techniques.
We examine substrates in the primate central nervous system involved in pain and temperature sensibilities. By combining use of anterograde and retrograde tract-tracing, single-unit physiological recordings, immunohistochemical cytoarchitectonics, 3-D ultrastructural reconstructions, and human psychophysical and PET activation studies, our efforts afford new insights into the fundamental organization of these sensory systems. We have recently described spinal and brainstem pathways for the direct effects of pain and temperature on sympathetic and autonomic output, and we have identified a dedicated spino-thalamo-cortical pathway in monkey and human for specific pain and temperature sensation. Our work is now focused on the basis for the inhibitory effect of cold on pain sensation, a fundamental interaction whose disruption may underly the central pain syndrome.
Selected Publications:
Andrew, D. and A.D. Craig (2001) Spinothalamic lamina I neurons selectively sensitive to histamine:a central neural pathway for itch. Nature Neuroscience 4:72-77.
Craig, A.D., K. Chen, D. Bandy and E.M. Reiman (2000) Thermosensory activation of insular cortex. Nature Neuroscience 3:184-190.
Zhang, E.-T., Z.-S. Han, and A.D. Craig (1996) Morphological classes of spinothalamic lamina I neurons in the cat. J. Comp. Neurol. 367:537-549.
Ericson, A.-C., A. Blomqvist, K. Krout, and A.D. Craig (1996) Fine structural organization of spinothalamic and trigeminothalamic lamina I terminations in the nucleus submedius of the cat. J. Comp. Neurol. 371:497-512.
Craig, A.D. (1996) Pain, temperature, and the sense of the body. In: Franzen, O., Johannson, R., and Terenius, L. (eds.) Somesthesis and the Neurobiology of the Somatosensory Cortex. Birkhäuser, Basel: pp 27-39.
Craig, A.D. (1995) Distribution of brainstem projections from spinal lamina I neurons in the cat and the monkey. J. Comp. Neurol. 361:225-248.
Craig, A.D. and M.C. Bushnell (1994) The thermal grill: unmasking the burn of cold pain. Science 265:252-255.
Craig, A.D., M.C. Bushnell, E.-T. Zhang, and A. Blomqvist (1994) A thalamic nucleus specific for pain and temperature sensation. Nature 372:770-773.
Univ. of Arizona Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy
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