Democratic organization of the thalamocortical neural ensembles in nociceptive signal processing.
- Author:
Fei LUO
1
;
Jin-Yan WANG
Author Information
1. Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. luof@psych.ac.cn
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Animals;
Cerebral Cortex;
physiology;
Humans;
Nociception;
physiology;
Pain;
physiopathology;
Thalamus;
physiology
- From:
Acta Physiologica Sinica
2008;60(5):669-676
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Acute pain is a warning protective sensation for any impending harm. However, chronic pain syndromes are often resistant diseases that may consume large amount of health care costs. It has been suggested by recent studies that pain perception may be formed in central neural networks via large-scale coding processes, which involves sensory, affective, and cognitive dimensions. Many central areas are involved in these processes, including structures from the spinal cord, the brain stem, the limbic system, to the cortices. Thus, chronic painful diseases may be the result of some abnormal coding within this network. A thorough investigation of coding mechanism of pain within the central neuromatrix will bring us great insight into the mechanisms responsible for the development of chronic pain, hence leading to novel therapeutic interventions for pain management.
