Nathan Selden
Assistant Professor, Neurological Surgery, Behavioral Neuroscience and Pediatrics
Vice-Chairman for Education, Neurological Surgery, OHSU
Head, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Doernbecher Children's Hospital
E-Mail: seldenn@ohsu.edu
Major Areas
Behavioral pharmacology; Pain; Neuroanatomy; Pediatric Neurological Surgery
Link to my page on pediatric neurosurgery website
Education
A.B. (1986) Stanford University
Ph.D. (1990) Cambridge University
M.D. (1993) Harvard Medical School
Research Interests
Our goal is to investigate descending modulatory control of nociception in the mammalian central nervous system. We focus on the
rostal ventromedial medulla (RVM), a well-known nociceptive modulatory center. The RVM contains three neuronal subpopulations
distinguished by their electrophysiological response to nociceptive stimuli: 'on cells' increase their activity and 'off-cells'
decrease their activity just prior to a nocifensive reflex. The activity of on- and off-cells is altered by opiates. These neurons are
also involved in behavioral responses to painful stimuli, including both adaptive pain responses and pathological chronic pain states.
The firing of 'neutral-cells' is unaffected by nociceptive stimuli and their role in nociceptive modulation, if any, is unknown.
Our current work focuses on elucidating the anatomy and pharmacology of nociceptive modulatory neurons in the RVM. This work uses a combination of in vivo electrophysiological, anatomical, and pharmacological approaches. Progress has been made towards identifying neuronal markers that may be used both to identify and manipulate individual on-, off-, or neutral cells or populations of these neurons in the RVM.
Selected Recent Publications
Sandquist MA, Selden NR (2003) A single-pass tunneling technique for CSF shunting procedures. Pediatr Neurosurg. Nov;39(5):254-7.
Allen RM, Sandquist MA, Piatt JH Jr, Selden NR (2003) Ultrasonographic screening in infants with isolated spinal strawberry nevi. J Neurosurg Spine. Apr;98(3):247-50.
Papadopoulos SM, Selden NR, Quint DJ, Patel N, Gillespie B, Grube S (2002) Immediate spinal cord decompression for cervical spinal cord injury: feasibility and outcome. J Trauma. Feb;52(2):323-32.
Selden NR, Quint DJ, Patel N, d'Arcy HS, Papadopoulos SM (1999) Emergency magnetic resonance imaging of cervical spinal cord injuries: clinical correlation and prognosis. Neurosurgery. Apr;44(4):785-92; discussion 792-3.
Selden NR, Gitelman DR, Salamon-Murayama N, Parrish TB, Mesulam MM (1998) Trajectories of cholinergic pathways within the cerebral hemispheres of the human brain. Brain. Dec;121 ( Pt 12):2249-57.