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A common neurobiology for pain and pleasure

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 9, pages 314–320 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Pain and pleasure are powerful motivators of behaviour and have historically been considered opposites. Emerging evidence from the pain and reward research fields points to extensive similarities in the anatomical substrates of painful and pleasant sensations. Recent molecular-imaging and animal studies have demonstrated the important role of the opioid and dopamine systems in modulating both pain and pleasure. Understanding the mutually inhibitory effects that pain and reward processing have on each other, and the neural mechanisms that underpin such modulation, is important for alleviating unnecessary suffering and improving well-being.

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Figure 1: Schematic illustration of pain–pleasure inhibition.
Figure 2: Brains regions implicated in pain and pleasure processing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank L. Moseley and M. Kringelbach for their helpful advice on the figures, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain Centre).

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  1. Department of Clinical Neurology, Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, Siri Leknes and Irene Tracey are at the Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, Oxford University, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.,

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Leknes, S., Tracey, I. A common neurobiology for pain and pleasure. Nat Rev Neurosci 9, 314–320 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2333

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