People with chronic pain can experience reduced motivation to complete goal-directed tasks, but the mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, the decreased motivation that occurred in two mouse models of chronic pain was associated with reduced activity in medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens, which was mediated by activation of galanin receptor 1. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized consequence of chronic pain on motivational circuitry in the brain.
References
Schwartz, N. et al. Chronic pain. Decreased motivation during chronic pain requires long-term depression in the nucleus accumbens. Science 345, 535–542 (2014)
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Lewis, S. Finding motivation in pain. Nat Rev Neurosci 15, 566 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3814
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3814