Scientists identify a central pain-suppression circuit in mice

A team from Duke University (NC, USA) has identified a small area of the brain in mice that can ‘profoundly’ control the animals’ sense of pain. The results, which have been published in Nature Neuroscience, reveal that this brain center is located in the amygdala and turns pain off, rather than on. “Most of the previous studies have focused on which regions are turned ON by pain. But there are so many regions processing pain, you’d have to turn them all off to stop pain. Whereas this one center can turn off the pain by itself,” commented senior author of...