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Amygdala physiology in pain.

Volker Neugebauer1

  • 1Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Giles McCrary Endowed Chair in Addiction Medicine, Director, Center of Excellence for Translational Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center | School of Medicine, 3601 4th Street | Mail Stop 6592, Lubbock, Texas 79430-6592.

Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience
|April 23, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The amygdala processes pain

Keywords:
Amygdalachronic painemotionsneuroplasticitypain modulationsynaptic plasticity

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pain Research
  • Affective Neuroscience

Background:

  • The amygdala is crucial for pain's emotional aspects and modulation.
  • It receives pain signals via direct and indirect pathways.
  • Cortical inputs modulate inhibitory neurons within the amygdala.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore amygdala's role in pain processing and plasticity.
  • To understand how synaptic changes in the amygdala contribute to pain.
  • To investigate amygdala activity's link to pain vulnerability and resilience.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of nociceptive information flow in the amygdala.
  • Investigation of synaptic plasticity mechanisms in amygdala output neurons.
  • Examination of excitation-inhibition balance in pain states.

Main Results:

  • Synaptic plasticity in amygdala output neurons, driven by excitation-inhibition imbalance, causes pain behaviors.
  • Neuroplasticity mechanisms involve transmitters, neuropeptides, amines, and signaling pathways.
  • Amygdala activity differences correlate with pain vulnerability and resilience phenotypes.

Conclusions:

  • The amygdala is central to the affective dimension of pain.
  • Imbalances in amygdala circuits drive pain persistence through neuroplasticity.
  • Individual amygdala activity patterns may predict pain complexity and chronicity.