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CRPP Pain

Neural circuits of pain

Grafik Work Package 5

Workpackage 5 addresses two aspects of central pain processing.

In the first project, we study neurons and circuits that process cold or cooling related information in the spinal cord. We find this project interesting because

  • proper sensing of ambient temperature is of utmost importance for the survival of euthermic animals including humans.
  • local cooling is one of the most efficient very often practiced methods to reduce acute and inflammatory pain.
  • patients with neuropathic pain develop a pathological hypersensitivity to environmental cold (cold allodynia).

Using various techniques for neuron subtype-specific manipulations in mice, including chemogenetics and toxin-mediated cell ablation, we have identified a population of inhibitory neurons of the mouse spinal dorsal horn that modulate behavioral sensitivity to environmental cold. We are now testing whether this population also contributes to cold or cooling induced analgesia and whether their dysfunction contributes to cold allodynia in models of neuropathy pain.

The second project is devoted to pain modulation by neurons that descend from the somatosensory cortex to the spinal cord. Activity of these neurons appears to be required for mechanical hypersensitivity following nerve damage. Their physiological role is however unknown. We hypothesize that these neurons might be involved in the anticipation of painful stimuli and possibly in pain prediction errors. In this project, we employ miniscope recordings from spinally descending layer 5 neurons of the somatosensory cortex, virus-based tracing methods and optogenetic approaches.