Megan L. Uhelski

TL;DR: Recent data obtained using novel behavioral paradigms in animals based on measuring escape and/or avoidance of a noxious stimulus based on the nature of the neuroanatomical and neurochemical contributions of the anterior cingulate cortex to higher order pain processing in rodents are summarized.

TL;DR: A dramatic reduction of pain behavior in transgenic mice is reported by optogenetic stimulation of the inhibitory neural circuitry of the anterior cingulate cortex expressing channelrhodopsin-2, which underscores the inhibition of the ACC as a clinical alternative in inhibiting chronic pain, and leads to a better understanding of the pain processing circuitry ofThe cingulated cortex.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined pain processing in adult rats following repeated maternal separation in infancy, a common model of early life stress, and found that affective pain processing was enhanced as revealed by increased responding during the tonic phase of the formalin test and during the place escape/avoidance test.

TL;DR: Clear benefits of broadening the use of the antidiabetic drug pioglitazone, or other PPAR&ggr; agonists, to minimize the development of cisplatin-induced painful neuropathy are demonstrated.

TL;DR: Previous evidence suggesting that the somatosensory cortex is primarily involved in the processing the sensory/discriminative aspect of pain is supported, and the current study is the first to demonstrate the presence of pain affect in the absence of somatoensory processing.