Room 3B108

Psychology Department

University of Stirling

Stirling

FK9 4LA
Scotland

UK

Email:

Lecturer

Neuroscience

Research in neuroscience. Course co-ordinator and lecturer in statistical methods. Neuroscience research lab scheme of work (risk assessment) is given here.

Somatosensory neurophysiology and pharmacology.

1) Touch receptors in the skin - particularly slowly adapting Type I units associated with Merkel cells in the basal layer of the epidermis.

Response characteristics of a slowly adapting type I unit recorded extracellularly from the deep vibrissal nerve.

a. Shows a ramp stimulus below which are response spikes. b. Spike shape. c. Inter-spike interval histogram. d. Plot of inter-spike intervals from successive spikes (note blunderbuss distribution of points). Taken from Cahusac & Senok (2006).

Listen to Edi Stark's BBC Scotland programme on the sense of touch. Also a more general interest in the psychology of the touch and tickle.

2) Neural processing in the cerebral cortex - in particular somatosensory information for touch, temperature and pain.

Intracellular recordings from somatosensory cortical neurones with iontophoresis of 1S,3R-ACPD and GABA (taken from Cahusac & Wan submitted).

Current work is focussed on the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors in both skin and cortex. In vitro studies (skin touch receptors) use extracellular recording with bath application of drugs. In vivo studies (cortex) use extracellular and intracellular recording with microiontophoresis.

  Molecular structure of glutamate

Crystallized glutamic acid (just a pretty picture) 

Co-ordinator for PSY914 - Psychological Methods
Contributor to PSY9A4 - Brain and Behaviour - Clinical Perspectives
Elective co-ordinator

Full Papers

Braid, L. & Cahusac, P. M. B. (2006) Decreased sensitivity to self-inflicted pain, Pain, 124:134-139. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B. & Senok, S.S. (2006) Metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists selectively enhance responses of slowly adapting Type I mechanoreceptors, Synapse, 59:235-242. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B., Senok, S.S., Hitchcock, I., Genever, P. & Baumann, K.I. (2005) Are unconventional NMDA receptors involved in slowly adapting type I mechanoreceptor responses?, Neuroscience, 133:763-773. [PDF]

Hitchcock, I., Genever, P. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (2004) Essential components for a glutamatergic synapse between Merkel cell and nerve terminal, Neuroscience Letters, 362:196-199. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B. (2003) Are glutamate receptors involved in transmission at the Merkel cell-neurite junction? In: The Merkel cell – structure – development – function – and Merkel cell carcinoma, Klaus I. Baumann, Zdenek Halata and Ingrid Moll (eds), Springer-Verlag.

Senok, S.S., Genever, P.G., Cahusac, P.M.B. & Baumann, K.I.(2003) Glutamate receptor-like immunoreactivity in rat vibrissal Merkel cells, In: The Merkel cell – structure – development – function – and Merkel cell carcinoma, Klaus I. Baumann, Zdenek Halata and Ingrid Moll (eds), Springer-Verlag.

Cahusac, P.M.B. (2002) The Perception of Touch, In: Signals and Perception: the Fundamentals of Human Sensation, edited by D. Roberts,  Palgrave, The Open University, pp245-254.

Fagan, B.M. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (2001) Evidence for glutamate receptor mediated transmission at mechanoreceptors in the skin, NeuroReport, 12: 341-347.

Smith, J.L. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (2001) Right-sided asymmetry in sensitivity to tickle, Laterality, 6 (3): 233-238. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B., Castro, M.G., Robertson, L. & Lowenstein, P.R. (1998) Electrophysiological evidence against a neurotransmitter role of corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) in primary somatosensory cortex, Brain Research, 793: 73-78. [PDF]

Dolan, S. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (1996) Differential effect of whisker trimming on excitatory and inhibitory transmission in the primary somatosensory cortex of the adult rat in vivo, Neuroscience, 70: 79-92. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B. (1995)  Synaptic plasticity induced in single neurones of the primary somatosensory cortex in vivo, Exp. Brain Res., 107: 241-253.

Cahusac, P.M.B., Morris, R. & Hill, R.G. (1995) A pharmacological study of the modulation of neuronal and behavioural nociceptive responses in the rat trigeminal region, Brain Research, 700: 70-82. [PDF]

Wan, H. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (1995) The effects of L-AP4 and O-phospho-l-serine on inhibition in primary somatosensory cortex of the adult rat in vivo, Neuropharmacology, 34: 1053-1062. [PDF]

Cahusac, P.M.B. (1994) Cortical layer-specific effects of the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist 1S,3R-ACPD in rat primary somatosensory cortex in vivo, Europ. J. Neurosci, 6, 1505-1511.

Recent Abstracts

Cahusac, P.M.B. (2005) Presynaptic depression by metabotropic glutamate receptor agonists in rat somatosensory cortex as assessed by intracellular recordings in vivo, J. Physiol., 567P: PC71. 

Cahusac, P.M.B. & Senok, S.S. (2005) Blockade of metabotropic glutamate receptors enhances rat slowly adapting type I responses in vitro, J. Physiol., 567P: C41.
 
Cahusac, P.M.B. & Senok, S.S. (2004) The effects of ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists on cutaneous slowly adapting type I responses, J. Physiol., 555P: C155.

Senok, S.S., Genever, P., Cahusac, P.M.B. (2003) Is MK-801 a specific NMDA receptor antagonist?   FEPS 2003, Abstract, June 2003.

Aggestam, F. & Cahusac, P. (2003) The rat’s tactile discriminative abilities, British Neuroscience Association, 17: 35.05.

Senok, S.S., Cahusac, P.M. & Baumann,  K.I. (2001) Spontaneous firing in vibrissal type II slowly adapting mechanoreceptors depends on potassium channel activity, Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., 27, 130.1 [PDF]

Senok, S.S., Baumann, K.I. & Cahusac, P.M.B. (2001) MK-801 depression of vibrissal slowly adapting mechanoreceptor responses, J. Physiol., 536P: S196.