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The spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pathway is critical for the manifestation of chronic pain

Neuropsychopharmacology volume 49, pages 491–492 (2024)Cite this article

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Pain is a complex phenomenon that elicits somatosensory and motor reflexive responses alongside enduring emotional and autonomic changes. Although pain serves as a protective mechanism to signal potential harm and encourage avoidance, it can also become persistent and pathological, disrupting regular functioning and quality of life. To effectively address chronic pain, it is imperative to increase our understanding of plasticity in the neural pathways that transmit nociceptive sensory information from peripheral nerve endings in the skin to higher-order brain areas facilitating cognition.

Bernard and Besson’s pioneering work highlighted the crucial role of the spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pathway in the ascending transmission of noxious somatosensory information [1]. Extracellular electrophysiological recordings in rats identified nociception-specific neurons in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) that project to the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). PBN→CeA neurons displayed broad receptive fields and graded responses to various noxious mechanical and thermal stimuli, consistently encoding the intensity of peripheral stimulation [1]. The PBN is a bilateral pontine brain structure that receives converging nociceptive information from peripheral nociceptors, spinal cord dorsal horn projection neurons, and other brainstem regions. The PBN then relays this ascending information to midbrain and forebrain regions for integration with emotional and cognitive inputs. The CeA is a bilateral almond shaped brain nucleus in the midbrain that is integral to processing and regulating emotional responses, particularly fear and anxiety. Thus, plasticity of PBN→CeA neurons is hypothesized to be a central mechanism for maladaptive pain chronification and pain aversion [2].

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Fig. 1: Proposed model of changes in the spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pathway in the context of chronic pain.

References

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health awards K00NS124190 (TSN) and F32NS128392 (HNA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Pathobiology, NYU Pain Research Center, New York University, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Tyler S. Nelson & Heather N. Allen

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  1. Tyler S. Nelson
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  2. Heather N. Allen
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TSN wrote the manuscript with contributions from HNA. HNA created Fig. 1.

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Correspondence to Tyler S. Nelson.

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Nelson, T.S., Allen, H.N. The spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pathway is critical for the manifestation of chronic pain. Neuropsychopharmacol. 49, 491–492 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01745-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01745-7

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