Researchers Identify Brain Circuitry in Rodents That May Be Responsible for Negative Emotional Aspects of Pain
Published:21 Oct.2021 Source:NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse
A new study published today in Nature Neuroscience has uncovered neuronal circuitry in the brain of rodents that may play an important role in mediating pain-induced anhedonia -- a decrease in motivation to perform reward-driven behaviors. In the study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, researchers were able to change the activity of this circuit and restore levels of motivation in a pre-clinical model of pain tested in rodents.
On a basic level, pain includes two components -- sensory (the pain you feel) and affective (the negative emotional component of pain). The presence of anhedonia, a hallmark of affective pain, is a common feature of depression, and may also increase one's vulnerability to opioid use disorder (OUD). Given this relationship, better understanding the brain circuitry involved in the affective component of pain is an important part of NIDA's research portfolio.