Neural circuit remodeling and structural plasticity in the cortex during chronic pain
Abstract
Damage in the periphery or spinal cord induces maladaptive plastic changes along the somatosensory nervous system from the periphery to the cortex, often leading to chronic pain. Although the role of neural circuit remodeling and structural synaptic plasticity in the 'pain matrix' cortices in chronic pain has been thought as a secondary epiphenomenon to altered nociceptive signaling in the spinal cord, progress in whole brain imaging studies on human patients and animal models has suggested a possibility that plastic changes in cortical neural circuits may actively contribute to chronic pain symptoms. Furthermore, recent development in two-photon microscopy and fluorescence labeling techniques have enabled us to longitudinally trace the structural and functional changes in local circuits, single neurons and even individual synapses in the brain of living animals. These technical advances has started to reveal that cortical structural remodeling following tissue or nerve damage could rapidly occur within days, which are temporally correlated with functional plasticity of cortical circuits as well as the development and maintenance of chronic pain behavior, thereby modifying the previous concept that it takes much longer periods ...Continue Reading
References
Citations
Methods Mentioned
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Barrel cortex
Here is the latest research on barrel cortex, a region of somatosensory and motor corticies in the brain, which are used by animals that rely on whiskers for world exploration.
Advanced Imaging of Cellular Signaling
Cell signaling is a vital mechanism for communication within cells and outside with the environment. Several different signaling pathways have been found and advanced imaging techniques are being developed to visualize the molecules involved in these signaling pathways. Find the latest research in advanced imaging of cellular signaling here.