A parabrachial hub for the prioritization of survival behavior.

Long-term sustained pain in the absence of acute physical injury is a prominent feature of chronic pain conditions. While neurons responding to noxious stimuli have been identified, understanding the signals that persist without ongoing painful stimuli remains a challenge. Using an ethological approach based on the prioritization of adaptive survival behaviors, we determined that neuropeptide Y (NPY) signaling from multiple sources converges on parabrachial neurons expressing the NPY Y1 receptor to reduce sustained pain responses.