Researchers at Duke University say they have found a small area of the brain that is responsible for ... the sensation of pain. And that maybe you can turn it off. For now in mice.
The team 's discovery is a continuation of research initiated by Dr. Fan Wang, who was checking which neurons are activated instead of being suppressed by general anesthesia.
Pain center
In 2019, Wang discovered that general anesthesia puts the body into a state of slow wave sleep, activating the supraoptical brain nucleus. During these studies, Wang discovered that putting the body to sleep and reduced pain are two different issues. The latter interested the scientist a bit more.
- People believe that somewhere in the brain there is a central place to relieve pain, that's why placebo works. The real question is where exactly to find this place - says Fan Wang, senior author of this study and professor of neuroscience.
This quote actually says everything about the subject of Wang's latest study. His team assumed - quite logically - that since in the brain, when experiencing pain, about 16 areas are activated, then turning them all off is either very difficult or simply impossible. Researchers decided to use a different approach and see if there is a center that activates regions we know to process pain.
And here we return to Wang's previous research. Researchers from the University of Duke have found that general anesthesia also activates a set of inhibitory neurons in the central almond body in mice. During research, they were called (neurons, not mice) CeAga neurons, where CeA stands for the central amygdala, and activation with general anesthesia.
The discovery of this type of neurons in the amygdala could have surprised scientists a bit. This area of the brain is associated rather with the feeling of negative emotions and reactions, such as e.g. anxiety. Further research, however, during which researchers checked which areas of the brain are activated by CeAga, showed that the amygdala may be the main switch for pain. I remind you that we are talking about mice all the time, but Professor Wang says that the pain control system in humans should work roughly the same.
Can pain be turned off in people?
Maybe yes. Unless researchers at Duke University are able to find the right mix of drugs that would activate only those cells that are responsible for suppressing pain. For now, using slightly less sophisticated methods of activating and deactivating neurons, researchers have been able to immunize mice against mild pain. By the way, they also found that low-dose ketamine as an analgesic activates the CeAga center they discovered.
Further research into this area of the brain could result in the development of effective pharmacological agents that completely disable the perception of pain. For people suffering from all kinds of chronic pain, such a breakthrough would mean a return to normal life. Not to mention that a new way to turn off pain would make life easier for anaesthesiologists.
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Researchers have found a pain sensation center. It can be turned off
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