Endogenous pain modulation may provide facilitation or inhibition of nociceptive input by three main mechanisms. Firstly, modification of synaptic strength in the spinal dorsal horn may increase or decrease transmission of nociceptive signals to the brain. Secondly, local dorsal horn interneurons provide both feed-forward and feed-back modulation to spinothalamic and spinobulbar projection neur...

A-type potassium currents are important determinants of neuronal excitability. In spinal cord dorsal horn neurons, A-type currents are modulated by extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), which mediate central sensitization during inflammatory pain. Here, we report that Kv4.2 mediates the majority of A-type current in dorsal horn neurons and is a critical site for modulation of neuronal ...

Previous studies indicated that stress and glucocorticoids have modulatory effects on acute pain. The aim of present study was to determine the interaction between stress and glucocorticoids with activation of voltage dependent Ca2+ channel on modulation of acute pain in mice. Male albino mice (25-30 g) were used for this experiment. Tail flick and hot plate were used for evaluation of analgesi...

Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the primary motor cortex (M1) is a promising treatment for chronic pain, but its mechanism action remains unclear. Competing dynamic causal models effective connectivity between M1 and medial lateral pain systems suggest direct input into insular, anterior cingulate cortex, parietal operculum. This supports hypothesis that analgesia produced from most likely...

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There is now increasing evidence that pathological pain states are at least in part driven by changes in the brain itself. Descending modulatory pathways are known to mediate top-down regulation of nociceptive processing, transmitting cortical and limbic influences to the dorsal horn. However, these modulatory pathways are also intimately intertwined with ascending transmission pathways through...

BACKGROUND Human, hairy skin contains a subgroup of C-fibers, the C-low threshold mechanoreceptive afferents ((C-LTMR) C-tactile or C-touch (CT) fibers) that are linked with the signaling of affective aspects of human touch. Recent studies suggest an involvement of these afferents in the modulation of pain in healthy volunteers. Small fiber neuropathy (SFN) is associated with a damage of C-fibe...