Abstract
Besides its Ca++-regulative effects, calcitonin is known to diminish sensitivity to painful stimuli. The present study aimed to clarify whether calcitonin has similar effects on stimulus processing in other modalities. Effects of calcitonin were assessed on brain potentials recorded from the human scalp which were evoked either by auditory clicks or visual checkerboard pattern-reversals. Twelve healthy men were tested in a double-blind intra-subject design receiving either 0.1 IU/kg salmon calcitonin (sCT) or 1.0 IU/kg sCT or saline solution during a 20 min IV infusion. sCT significantly increased latency of wave V of the brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP). Effects on BAEP wave V increased in magnitude with increasing dose of sCT and with decreasing intensity of the click stimulus. There was also a slight increase in latency of the N80 of the pattern-reversal visual evoked potential (PR-VEP). Additionally, subjects rated themselves as less activated following the high dose of sCT compared to placebo. The pattern of results is in accord with a slowing or inhibitory influence of calcitonin on auditory and visual sensory processing, thus paralleling findings concerning calcitonin effects on the perception of painful somatosensory stimuli.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blanchard J, Menk E, Ramamurthy S, Hoffman J (1990) Subarachnoid and epidural calcitonin in patients with pain due to metastatic cancer. J Pain Symptom Manage 5:42–45
Born J, Schwab R, Pietrowsky R, Pauschinger P, Fehm HL (1989) Glucocorticoid influences on the auditory brain-stem responses in man. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 74:209–216
Copp DH (1985) Calcitonin comes of age — a quarter century in perspective. In: Pecile A (ed) Calcitonin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 3–9
Fabbri A, Fraioli F, Pert CB, Pert A (1985) Calcitonin receptors in the rat mesencephalon mediate its analgesic action: autoradiographic and behavioral analyses. Brain Res 343:205–215
Fischer JA, Tobler PH, Kaufmann M, Born W, Henke H, Cooper PE, Sagar SM, Martin JB (1981) Calcitonin: regional distribution of the hormone and its binding sites in the human brain and pituitary. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78:7801–7805
Fischer JA, Tobler PH, Henke H, Tschopp FA (1983) Salmon and human calcitonin-like peptides coexist in the human thyroid and brain. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 57:1314–1316
Fraioli F, Fabbri A, Gnessi L, Moretti C, Santore C, Felici M (1982) Subarachnoid injection of salmon calcitonin induces analgesia in man. Eur J Pharmacol 78:381–382
Freed WJ, Perlow MJ, Wyatt RJ (1979) Calcitonin: inhibitory effect on eating in rats. Science 206:850–852
Gennari C, Chierichetti SM, Gonelli S, Piolini M, Francini G, Civitelli R, Agnusdei D, Montagnani M (1985) Analgesic activity of different calcitonins in man. In: Pecile A (ed) Calcitonin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 183–188
Goltzman D, Mitchell J (1985) Calcitonin and calcitonin gene related peptide: analysis of discrete and overlapping interaction at receptor sites. In: Pecile A (ed) Calcitonin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 245–252
Guidobono F, Netti C, Sibilia V, Villa I, Zamboni A, Pecile A (1986) Eel calcitonin binding site distribution and antinociceptive activity in rats. Peptides 7:315–322
Henke H, Tobler PH, Fischer JA (1983) Localization of salmon calcitonin binding sites in rat brain by autoradiography. Brain Res 272:373–377
Hodgkinson SC, Allolio B, Landon J, Lowry PJ (1984) Development of a nonextractet “two-site” immunoradiometric assay for corticotropin utilizing extreme amino- and carboxyterminally directed antibodies. Biochem J 218:703–711
Ishida-Yamamoto D, Tohyama M (1989) Calcitonin gene-related peptide in the nervous tissue. Prog Neurobiol 33:335–386
Janke W, Debus G (1978) Die Eigenschaftswörterliste EWL. Eine mehrdimensionale Methode zur Beschreibung von Aspekten des Befindens. Hogrefe, Göttingen
Krootila K, Uusitalo H, Palkama A (1988) Effect of neurogenic irritation and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on ocular blood flow in the rabbit. Curr Eye Res 7:695–703
Laurian L, Oberman Z, Graf E, Gilad S, Hoerer E, Simantov R (1986) Calcitonin induced increase in ACTH, β-endorphin and cortisol secretion. Horm Metab Res 18:268–271
Marx SH, Aurbach GD (1975) Renal receptors for calcitonin: coordinate occurence with calcitonin-activated adenylate cyclase. Endocrinology 97:448–453
Morton CR, Maisch B, Zimmerman M (1986) Calcitonin: brainstem microinjection but not systemic administration inhibits spinal nociceptive transmission in the cat. Brain Res 372:149–153
Oksala O (1988) Effects of calcitonin gene-related peptide and substance P on regional blood flow in the cat eye. Exp Eye Res 47:283–289
Pietrowsky R, Preuss S, Born J, Pauschinger P, Fehm HL (1989) Effects of cholecystokinin and calcitonin on evoked brain potentials and satiety in man. Physiol Behav 46:513–519
Plata-Saláman CR, Oomura Y (1987) Calcitonin as a feeding suppressant: localization of central action to the cerebral III ventricle. Physiol Behav 40:501–513
Prato A, Scapagnini U, Rapisarda E, Giuffrida R, Palmeri A, Caruso A, Clementi G (1987) Analgesic activity of a synthetic analogue of eel-calcitonin and its effect on the spontaneous activity of brainstem neurons in the rat. Neurosci Lett 81:307–308
Segre G, Bruni G, Dal Pra P (1985) Calcitonin pharmacokinetics. In: Pecile A (ed) Calcitonin. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 99–107
Stockard JJ, Stockard JE, Sharbrough FW (1978) Nonpathologic factors influencing brainstem auditory evoked potentials. Am J EEG Technol 18:177–193
Ustdal M, Dogan P, Soyuer A, Terzi S (1989) Treatment of migraine with salmon calcitonin: effects on plasma beta-endorphin, ACTH and cortisol levels. Biomed Pharmacother 43:687–691
Uusitalo H, Krootila K, Palkama A (1989) Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) immunoreactive sensory nerves in the human and guinea pig uvea and cornea. Exp Eye Res 48:467–475
Van Houten M, Rizzo AJ, Goltzman D, Posner BJ (1982) Brain receptors for blood-borne calcitonin in rats: circumventricular localization and vasopressin-resistant deficiency in hereditary diabetes insipidus. Endocrinology 111:1704–1710
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pietrowsky, R., Dentler, M., Fehm, H.L. et al. Effects of calcitonin on human auditory and visual evoked brain potentials. Psychopharmacology 107, 50–54 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02244964
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02244964