Summary: A recent study demonstrates that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC ) processes pain and itch through various neural circuits. One type of neurons responds to both stimuli, while the other is carefully activated by either problems or itch, according to researchers ‘ findings.
They discovered that these cells receive distinct inputs from the mediodorsal brain using sophisticated neural evaluation and chemogenetic techniques. The findings provide novel insights into how the mind differentiates between these feelings, challenging the long-held conviction that discomfort and ache share the same neural pathways.
Important Information
- Different cerebral populations in the ACC process problems and itch differently than one another.
- Some cells respond to both stimulation, while others are stimulus-specific, according to careful cerebral activation.
- Potential for Therapy: Recognizing these wires may aid in the development of treatments for tingle and severe pain conditions.
Institute for Basic Science as a cause
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC ) is governed by the neural mechanisms that govern the processing of pain and itch, according to a research team led by KAANG Bong-Kiun, director of the Center for Cognition and Sociality at the Institute for Basic Science ( IBS ), and KO Hyoung-Gon, professor at Kyung Hee University College of Dentistry.
This research provides fresh insights into how the brain can tell the difference between these two different sensory experience.
Although both pain and ache are irritating, they cause different responses: itching leads to scratching, while pain frequently leads to withdrawal. Researchers have struggled to comprehend how the brain separates these feelings because they share clashing neural processes from the spinal cord to the head.
Both impulses travel from the vertebral wire to the brain and brain, finally reaching the ACC. The ACC is a significant area of the brain that is involved in a range of functions, including higher-order thinking and basic visual control. Yet, it has been difficult to get a thorough knowledge of how a small number of cells within the ACC carry out these various tasks.
This research provides important insight into how ACC neurons regulate the processing of pain and itch signals.
The research group came up with the idea of two specific neuronal populations by analyzing the ACC’s response patterns to pain and ache stimuli:
1. Non-selective cells that randomly respond to both problems and ache stimuli.
2. Specifically triggered sensory-specific cells that were carefully activated by ache or pain stimuli.
Additionally, the researchers discovered that stimulus-specific neurons in the ACC receive distinct synaptic inputs from the mediodorsal thalamus ( MD), using the dual-eGRASP technique, an advanced synaptic analysis technique developed by Kaang’s research team ( Science, 2018 ).
This finding provides important insights into the neuronal mechanisms of discomfort and itch processing by impartial neuronal populations within the ACC that receive differentiated synaptic inputs.
The group used chemogenetic methods to selectively delete either pain-specific or itch-specific neurons in order to further ensure the function of these cells. The results demonstrated that restricting problems neurons prevented ache and that the opposite happened. This finding points out that these cells directly influence how we experience problems and ache.
This research makes a groundbreaking discovery that the position of ACC cells in the handling of pain or ache is predetermined. Interestingly, the study establishes impartial neural circuits for discomfort and ache processing by demonstrating that the ACC’s pain- and itch-specific neurons are synaptically paired with the MD’s related stimulus-specific neurons.
These findings challenge the commonly held notion that itch and pain signals are a product of overlapping pathways, and otherwise highlight unique neural mechanisms for each feeling.
This research suggests that distinct cerebral populations are responsible for encoding the personal knowledge of anguish and ache because the ACC is known to resolve the emotional components of the problems and itch. The research team intends to expand its understanding of the brain’s complex sensory control methods in light of these findings.
The ACC is crucial for processing higher-order emotions like pain and issue, according to correspondent artist KAANG Bong-Kiun. Through this research, we have advanced significantly in our understanding of personal memory at the synaptic level.
Co-author and first author KO Hyoung-Gon stated that” I am especially interested in how these pain- and itch-selective neural circuits change under pathological conditions. We intend to expand our analysis to look into the relations between these wires as we move forward.
About this information about science and pain
Author: William Suh
Source: Institute for Basic Science
Contact: William Suh – Insititute for Basic Science
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Classic research: Free of charge.
KAANG Bong-Kiun and colleagues ‘ work on the processing of pain and itch information in mice by modality-specific cells. Nature Communications
Abstract
In mice, modality-specific neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex process problems and ache information.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is crucial for their emotional sizes, processes aversive sensations with unique qualities in overlapping pathways and head regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is essential for their emotional dimensions. The biological mechanisms that control their ACC processing are still a mystery.
In animals involved in pain and ache control, we find modality-specific cerebral populations in coating II and III of the ACC. We demonstrate that pain- and itch-related neurons carefully receive neural inputs from mediodorsal thalamic neurons activated by anguish and ache stimuli, both, using a junction naming tool.
Pruriception or nociception were both affected by chemogenetic suppression of these cells, without affecting the other mechanism. In contrast, detection of these cells did not enhance stimulus-specific replies but frequently increased freezing-like behavior.
These findings demonstrate that there are activity-dependent and modality-specific cerebral populations involved in the handling of ache and pain information in the ACC, and that there are essentially different ACC cerebral subsets responsible for this process.
