Dr Frankie MacMillan

Integrative Autonomic and Sensory Control

We combine functional anatomical approaches and immunocytochemical techniques to investigate differences in sensory input mediated by Aδ or C fibres.  We are interested in how these inputs may be differentially modulated at the level of the spinal cord by descending control mechanisms from higher brain centres.  Such control mechanisms may underlie the patterns of change in nociceptive responsiveness and autonomic outflow that are associated with different behavioural states and that accompany certain pathophysiological conditions.

My main area of expertise and therefore input to these projects is in immunocytochemical techniques and tract tracing techniques. Immunocytochemistry allows us to identify chemically distinct groups of neurones or groups of neurones and those that have been activated by visualisation the immediate early gene Fos. The tract tracing techniques we use allow us to identify the projections of these neurones to sites where we know the physiological consequesnce of stimulation.