Biology subjects

Rolls, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Rolls, A..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Pain Matters: Nociceptive signaling drives neural encoding of inflammatory responses

Pain is a cardinal sign of inflammation, constructed by the brain from peripheral nociceptive input. Yet, its role in the brain's response to inflammation remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that nociceptive signaling is essential for the brain to represent and replay inflammatory states. Analysis of human fMRI and mouse activity mapping revealed that peripheral inflammation generates a distinct brain state. In mice, ablation of TRPV1+ sensory neurons or pharmacological analgesia disrupted this organization and prevented the insular cortex from forming retrievable immune representations. Conversely, augmenting nociceptive signaling during inflammation strengthened subsequent immune recall. These findings identify nociceptive input as a critical signal in brain-immune dialogue, enabling the encoding and retrieval of inflammatory events.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Remembering immunity: Neuronal ensembles in the insular cortex encode and retrieve specific immune responses

Increasing evidence indicates that the brain regulates peripheral immunity. Yet, it remains unclear whether and how the brain represents the state of the immune system. Here, we show that immune-related information is stored in the brains insular cortex (InsCtx). Using activity-dependent cell labeling in mice (FosTRAP), we captured neuronal ensembles in the InsCtx that were active under two different inflammatory conditions (DSS-induced colitis and Zymosan-induced peritonitis). Chemogenetic reactivation of these neuronal ensembles was sufficient to broadly retrieve the inflammatory state under which these neurons were captured. Thus, we show that the brain can encode and initiate specific immune responses, extending the classical concept of immunological memory to neuronal representations of immunity.

neuroscience↗