The sensory experience of pain depends not only on the transmission of noxious information (nociception), but on the state of the body in a biological, psychological, and social milieu. A brainstem pain-modulating system with its output node in the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) can regulate the threshold and gain for nociceptive transmission. This review considers the current understanding of how RVM pain-modulating neurons, namely ON-cells and OFF-cells, are engaged by "top-down" cognitive and emotional factors, as well as by "bottom-up" sensory inputs, to enhance or suppress pain.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9274196 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2022.932476 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Effects of treadmill running on anxiety- and craniofacial pain-like behaviors with histone H3 acetylation in the brain of mice subjected to social defeat stress.
PLoS One
January 2025
Division of Oral Physiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan.
This study examined the effects of treadmill running (TR) regimens on craniofacial pain- and anxiety-like behaviors, as well as their effects on neural changes in specific brain regions of male mice subjected to repeated social defeat stress (SDS) for 10 days. Behavioral and immunohistochemical experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of TR regimens on SDS-related those behaviors, as well as epigenetic and neural activity markers in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insular cortex (IC), rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM), and cervical spinal dorsal horn (C2). Behavioral responses were quantified using multiple tests, while immunohistochemistry measured histone H3 acetylation, histone deacetylases (HDAC1, HDAC2), and neural activity markers (FosB and phosphorylated cAMP response element-binding protein (pCREB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA septo-hypothalamic-medullary circuit directs stress-induced analgesia.
Elife
January 2025
Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India.
Stress is a potent modulator of pain. Specifically, acute stress due to physical restraint induces stress-induced analgesia (SIA). However, where and how acute stress and pain pathways interface in the brain are poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedial and lateral vestibulospinal projections to the cervical spinal cord of the squirrel monkey.
Front Neurol
January 2025
Oregon Hearing Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States.
Introduction: The brainstem vestibular nuclei neurons receive synaptic inputs from inner ear acceleration-sensing hair cells, cerebellar output neurons, and ascending signals from spinal proprioceptive-related neurons. The lateral (LVST) and medial (MVST) vestibulospinal (VS) tracts convey their coded signals to the spinal circuits to rapidly counter externally imposed perturbations to facilitate stability and provide a framework for self-generated head movements.
Methods: The present study describes the morphological characteristics of intraaxonally recorded and labeled VS neurons monosynaptically connected to the 8th nerve.
An intra-brainstem circuitry for pain-induced inhibition of itch.
Neuroscience
January 2025
Center for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560012, India. Electronic address:
Pain and itch are unpleasant and distinct sensations that give rise to behaviors such as reflexive withdrawal and scratching in humans and mice. Interestingly, it has been observed that pain modulates itch through the neural circuits housed in the brain and spinal cord. However, we have yet to fully understand the identities and mechanisms by which specific neural circuits mediate pain-induced modulation of itch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndividual differences in conditioned pain modulation are associated with functional connectivity within the descending antinociceptive pathway.
Pain
November 2024
Division of Brain, Imaging, and Behaviour, Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
The perception of pain and ability to cope with it varies widely amongst people, which in part could be due to the presence of inhibitory (antinociceptive) or facilitatory (pronociceptive) effects in conditioned pain modulation (CPM). This study examined whether individual differences in CPM reflect functional connectivity (FC) strengths within nodes of the descending antinociceptive pathway (DAP). A heat-based CPM paradigm and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were used to test the hypothesis that an individual's capacity to exhibit inhibitory CPM (changes in test stimuli [TS] pain due to a conditioning stimulus [CS]) reflects FC of the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), periaqueductal gray (PAG), and rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!