Brain Blood Pressure and Stress

About the Brain Blood Pressure and Stress Lab

You are about to give a public talk. Your heart is racing, your hands are sweaty, your guts are knotted your hands shake and your voice quivers. How is this happening? What are the pathways in the brain controlling this response? The research conducted in the Brain, Blood Pressure and Stress laboratory aims to understand how the brain controls the autonomic and cardiovascular changes associated with stress, emotions and exercise. The approach used is a system approach combining anatomical and physiological tools as well as behavioural observation. The work is done in conscious rats.

Research Themes

We use two main approaches:

Anatomical

• Immunohistochemical detection of c-Fos to map activated parts of the brain during emotional stressors and exercise.
• C-Fos can be combined with retrograde tracing between different parts of the brain to identified nodes in the network.
• C-Fos can be combined with immunohistochemical or in situ hybridisation labelling of neurotransmitters or their enzymes to identify the chemical profile of relays in the network.

Functional

• Telemetric recording of blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature and activity in freely moving animals during tests via implanted probes.
• Infrared thermographic recording of surface temperature (cutaneous blood flow).
• Behavioral observations.
• All of the above in combinations with excitotoxic lesions or microinjection of pharmacological agents in restricted parts of the brain.

Funding

Research in the laboratory is currently supported by the NHMRC and 2 PhD scholarships. There has been continuous support from NHMRC or NHF for the past 12 years.
Current projects are:

• the role of the orexin system in stress and exercise
• the central pathways of exercise as opposed to stress
• the mechanisms of non-shivering thermogenesis
• the organization of the output of the amygdala

Researchers

A/Prof Pascal Carrive (Head)
Leanne Luong (PhD student)
Nick Olsen (PhD student)
Bruno Dampney (Honours student)

Further Information

Book
Paxinos G., Watson C.; Carrive P, Kirkcaldie, M. and Ashwell K. (2009) Chemoarchitectonic Atlas of the Rat Brain. Academic Press, San Diego.

Journal Articles (2005-now)

For a full list of publications and access to abstracts and articles, simply search for “carrive” on Pubmed.

Choi, E.A., Leman, S., Vianna D., Waite, P.M. and Carrive, P (2005) . Expression of cardiovascular and behavioural components of conditioned fear to context in T4 spinally transected rats. Autonomic Neuroscience 120: 26-34.

Vianna, D.M.L. and Carrive, P. (2005). Changes in cutaneous and body temperature during and after conditioned fear to context in the rat. European Journal of neuroscience 21: 2505-2512.
McNally G. and Carrive, P. (2006). A telemetric examination of cardiovascular function during the development of and recovery from opiate dependence. Physiology & Behavior 88(1-2):55-60.

Florenzano, F., Viscomi, M.T., Mercaldo, V., Longone, P., Bernardi, G., Bagni, C., Molionari, M. and Carrive, P. (2006). P2X2R purinergic receptor subunit mRNA and protein are expressed by all hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin neurons. Journal of Comparative Neurology 498(1):58-67.

Carrive, P. (2006). Dual activation of cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic components during conditioned fear to context in the rat. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology 33: 1260-1263

Laird A, Carrive P. and Waite P (2006). Cardiovascular and temperature changes in spinal cord injured rats at rest and during autonomic dysreflexia, J Physiol (Lond) 577, 539-548

Furlong T. and Carrive P. (2007). Neurotoxic lesions centered on the perifornical hypothalamus abolish the cardiovascular and behavioural responses of conditioned fear to context but not restraint. Brain Research 1128, 107-109

Florenzano F, Carrive P, Viscomi M.T., Ferrari F., Latini L., Conversi D., Cabib S., Bagni C. and Molinari M. (2008) Cortical and subcortical distribution of P2X[1]R immunoreative neurons in the rat forebrain. Neuroscience 151(3) 791-801

Laird A., Finch A.M., Waite P.M.E. and Carrive P. (2008) Peripheral changes above and below injury level lead to exaggerated vascular responses following high spinal cord injury. American Journal of Physiology 294(2): H785--792.

Carrive P. and Gorissen M. (2008) Premotor sympathetic neurons of conditioned fear in the rat. European Journal of Neuroscience 28(3): 428-446

Vianna, DML, Allen C. and Carrive P. (2008) Cardiovascular and behavioural responses to conditioned fear after medullary raphe neuronal blockade. Neuroscience 153(4): 1344-1353

Le Bars D. and Carrive P. (2009) Letter to the Editor of Pain about Gemma Ford and David Finn, Clinical correlates of stress-induced analgesia: evidence from pharmacological study. Pain 42(1-2):165-7

Marks A., Vianna DML and Carrive P. (2009) Non-shivering thermogenesis without interscapular brown adipose tissue involvement during conditioned fear in the rat. American Journal of Physiology 96(4):R1239-47.

Laird A., Carrive, P. and Waite, P.M.E. (2009) The effect of treadmill training on autonomic dysreflexia in spinal cord injured rats. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair (23 (9): 910-920.

Kalincik, T., Jozefcikova, K., Waite, P.M.E. and Carrive P. (2009) Local response to cold in rat tail after spinal cord transection. Journal of Applied Physiology 106(6):1976-85

Vianna DML and Carrive P. (2009) Inhibition of the cardiovascular response to stress by systemic 5-HT1A activation: sympathoinhibition or anxiolysis? American Journal of Physiology 297(2):R495-501

Furlong T., Vianna, DML, Liu L and Carrive P. (2009) Hypocretin/orexin contributes to the expression of some but not all forms of stress and arousal. European Journal of Neuroscience 30: 1603-1614

Cloutier, F., Lauschke, J and Carrive, P. (2010) Compensatory mechanisms to maintain blood pressure in paraplegic rats: implication of central tachykinin NK-1 and NK-3 receptors. Neuropeptides 44: 199-207.

Vianna DML and Carrive P. (2010). Cardiovascular and nehavioural responss to conditioned fear and restraint are not affected by retrograde lesions of A5 and C1 bulbospinal neurons. Neuroscience 166: 1210-1218.

Kalincik, T., Choi, E.A., Feron, F, Bianco, J, Sutharsan R, Hayward, I, Mackay-Sim, A, Carrive P. and Waite, P.M.E. (2010) Olfactory ensheathing cells reduce duration of autonomic dysreflexia in rats with high spinal cord injury Autonomic Neuroscience 154: 20-29

Kalincik, T., Jozefcikova, K., Sutharsan R, Hayward, I, Mackay-Sim, A, Carrive P and Waite, P.M.E. (2010). Selected changes in spinal cord morphology after T4 transection and olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation. Autonomic Neuroscience 158: 31-38.

Carrive P, Churyukanov M and Le Bars D. (2011). A reassessment of stress-induced "analgesia" in the rat using an unbiased method. Pain 152: 676-686