Topic: pain chronification

Recently, research has focused extensively on the peripheral mechanisms that contribute to pain chronification, but our knowledge on the involvement of different brain regions remains limited. The Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) is a central hub for reward-related processes, with its interneurons having significant potential to control NAc output signals. However, their involvement in the chronification of pain has not been investigated until now.In this study, we performed patch-clamp recordings of cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) and GABAergic interneurons positive for parvalbumin (PV-GaIs) and somat

Temporal summation of second pain (TSSP), is thought to reflect central sensitization, a process linked to pain chronification. Lately, one study has shown how "affective touch" ('AT') is able to lower the pain sensation during TSSP, but the neural underpinnings of such interaction are still unknown. In the present EEG study, participants went through three conditions where a TSSP protocol was applied in concomitance with discriminative touch ('DT'), 'AT' or no tactile stimulation ('NoT'). Heat stimuli were delivered via a thermode attached to the dorsal side of the right wrist, while tactile

Despite the pervasiveness of chronic pain worldwide, few effective strategies for long-term pain management exist. The development of new, non-addictive pain interventions hinges upon a deeper understanding of the changes in neural activity and circuitry that drive the development of chronic pain states. Recent studies have implicated the basolateral amygdala (BLA) as a critical hub in the encoding of negative valence to nociceptive information. Using immediate early gene mapping in combination with an activity-based rabies viral tracing screen, we identified several brain regions that synapse