ArticlesAmygdala Lesions Produce Analgesia in a Novel, Ethologically Relevant Acute Pain Test
Section snippets
Experiment 1
In this study, rats were placed in an alley that had in its center an array of sharp pins embedded in a small platform. The size and spatial arrangement of the pins made it impossible for the rats to traverse the alley without making contact with the tips of the pins. There were no experimenter-imposed incentives for the rats to contact the pins, and the animals could move about freely. We predicted that rats would nevertheless make “voluntary” contacts with the pins because of their natural
Experiment 2
There is increasing evidence that nuclei in the area of the amygdala play a role in nociception. Electrophysiological recordings from cells in the amygdala following stimulation of peripheral pain fibers confirm that the amygdala receives nociceptive information (1). The amygdala receives direct projections from the regions of the thalamus 20, 28 and parabrachial nucleus (27) that are innervated by pain pathways 18, 19, 22. Behavioral results following amygdala manipulations have been mixed,
Summary
The present study presented a novel pain test involving the exposure of rats to acute, mechanical pain producing stimuli of a punctate nature in a context conducive to the expression of a range of behavioral responses to this ethologically relevant class of painful stimuli. Although there were no experimenter-imposed incentives to contact the pins, rats exhibited a pattern of risk assessment that involved high levels of voluntary tactile exploration of the painful objects. Amygdala lesions
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2013, Pharmacology Biochemistry and BehaviorCitation Excerpt :This is important because it may serve as the neurobiological basis for the exacerbation or precipitation of pain in primarily non-pain conditions such as anxiety, depression and addictive states. Conversely, deactivation of the amygdala can inhibit pain in animal models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain (Ansah et al., 2010; Fu et al., 2008; Han et al., 2005; Han and Neugebauer, 2005; Hebert et al., 1999; Ji et al., 2010; Martin et al., 2011). Outcome measures of the emotional-affective dimension of pain in these studies included vocalizations, escape/avoidance and anxiety-like behavior.
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2011, NeuropharmacologyCitation Excerpt :Increasing activity in the amygdala can elicit or enhance pain responses even in the absence of tissue injury (Qin et al., 2003; Myers et al., 2005; Carrasquillo and Gereau, 2007; Han et al., 2010; Myers and Greenwood-Van Meerveld, 2010; Kolber et al., 2010; Li et al., 2011). Conversely, lesions or pharmacological deactivation of the amygdala have inhibitory effects in different pain models (Manning, 1998; Hebert et al., 1999; Han and Neugebauer, 2005; Han et al., 2005; Pedersen et al., 2007; Fu and Neugebauer, 2008; Fu et al., 2008; Palazzo et al., 2008; Ji et al., 2010). Recent studies in humans also showed pain-related activity increases in the amygdala (Kulkarni et al., 2007; Baliki et al., 2008; Tillisch et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2010).