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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Intracranial Pharmacotherapy and Pain Assays in Rodents
Published on: April 9, 2019
The indirect pathway of the nucleus accumbens shell amplifies neuropathic pain
Wenjie Ren1, Maria Virginia Centeno1, Sara Berger1
1Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Abstract:
We examined adaptations in nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons in mouse and rat peripheral nerve injury models of neuropathic pain. Injury selectively increased excitability of NAc shell indirect pathway spiny projection neurons (iSPNs) and altered their synaptic connectivity. Moreover, injury-induced tactile allodynia was reversed by inhibiting and exacerbated by exciting iSPNs, indicating that they not only participated in the central representation of pain, but gated activity in ascending nociceptive pathways.
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