Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Cheek Injection Model for Simultaneous Measurement of Pain and Itch-related Behaviors
Published on: September 27, 2019
Modulation of itch and pain signals processing in ventrobasal thalamus by thalamic reticular nucleus
Peng-Fei Liu1, Yan Wang1, Ling Xu1
1Department of Anesthesiology, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 201620, China.
Abstract:
Thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is known to be crucial for dynamically modulating sensory processing. Recently, the functional role of TRN in itch and pain sensation processing has drawn much attention. We found that ventrobasal thalamus (VB) neurons exhibited scratching behavior-related and nociceptive behavior-related neuronal activity changes, and most of VB neurons responsive to pruritic stimulus were also activated by nociceptive stimulus. Inhibition of VB could relieve itch-induced scratching behaviors and pathological pain without affecting basal nociceptive thresholds, and activation of VB could facilitate scratching behaviors. Tracing and electrophysiology recording results showed that VB mainly received inhibitory inputs from ventral TRN. Furthermore, optogenetic activation of TRN-VB projections suppressed scratching behaviors, and ablation of TRN enhanced scratching behaviors. In addition, activation of TRN-VB projections relieved the pathological pain without affecting basal nociceptive thresholds. Thus, our study indicates that TRN modulates itch and pain signals processing via TRN-VB inhibitory projections.
Related Concept Videos
Nociception
Thermosensation
Diencephalon: Thalamus and Information Relay
Major Somatic Sensory Pathways
Somatosensation
Pain

