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Nature Medicine 7, 772 - 773 (2001)
doi:10.1038/89880

Sensory neurons are PARtial to pain

Patrick W. Mantyh1 & Tony L. Yaksh2

  1. Department of Preventive Science, Neuroscience and Psychiatry University of Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
    e-mail: manty001@tc.umn.edu
  2. Department of Anesthesiology University of California, San Diego San Diego, California, USA
    e-mail: tyaksh@ucsd.edu


Recent insights into the receptors expressed by sensory neurons are providing the beginnings of a biological basis for designing therapies to block nociceptive information before it reaches the spinal cord. This approach could potentially avoid some of the side effects in the central nervous system caused by currently available analgesics. (pages 821–826)


During the last two decades, our understanding of how the brain acquires and processes visual, auditory, taste, olfactory and somatosensory information has undergone a dramatic revolution. In no other sensory modality has progress been more rapid and profound than in our knowledge of how nociceptive (pain) information is transmitted and processed in both the normal and pathological state.