Stimulus induced synaptic plasticity in the amygdala

急性疼痛对我们的环境中的危险发出了重要的警告。然而，一些临床条件产生的慢性持续性疼痛持续时间超过了最初的损伤及其有用的作用。这种持续的疼痛是一种使人虚弱的疾病，影响着20%的澳大利亚人口，其特征是痛苦的感觉体验和消极的情绪状态。持续性疼痛的临床管理仍然存在问题，因为与充分缓解疼痛所需的剂量不断增加相关的无法忍受的副作用，以及当前药物疗法在一些临床上重要的疼痛状态下的疗效有限。原始损伤消退后持续的疼痛提示了导致持续疼痛的适应的发展。持续性疼痛背后的神经生物学变化还没有明确的定义。更好地了解这种神经生物学将导致更好的治疗持续性疼痛的方法。杏仁核是一个对疼痛处理、内源性止痛和情绪起重要作用的大脑区域。将疼痛信息传递到杏仁核的神经通路最近被证明在持续性疼痛的发展中起关键作用。这条关键的神经通路是否会因疼痛而改变，目前还知之甚少。这个项目将使用电气和化学技术来确定短暂或持续的疼痛刺激如何改变痛苦信息传递到杏仁核神经元的方式。短暂的疼痛刺激所产生的变化可能代表了持续性疼痛状态发展的最初变化。这些信息可能使我们更充分地了解从急性疼痛到持续性疼痛的转变，所定义的变化可能对药物调节敏感。预防或抑制这些疼痛引起的变化可能会为持续性疼痛提供更好的治疗，或者理想地防止人们经历从急性疼痛到持续性疼痛的过渡。

Acute pain provides important warnings about dangers in our environment. However some clinical conditions produce chronic-persistent pain that outlasts the original injury and its useful role. This persistent pain is a debilitating condition that affects 20% of the Australian population and is characterized by painful sensory experience and a negative emotional state. The clinical management of persistent pain remains problematic due to the intolerable side effects associated with the escalating doses required for adequate pain relief and the limited efficacy of current drug therapies in some clinically important pains states. The persistence of pain after the original injury has resolved suggest the development of adaptations that result in the ongoing pain. The changes in neurobiology underlying persistent pain are poorly defined. A better understanding of this neurobiology will result in better therapeutic approaches to persistent pain. The amygdala is a brain region that is important for pain processing, endogenous analgesia and emotion. A neuronal pathway that delivers information about pain to the amygdala has recently been shown to be critical for the development of persistent pain. Little is known about whether this critical neuronal pathway is modified by pain. This project will determine using electrical and chemical techniques how a brief or persistent painful stimulus changes the delivery of painful information to the neurons in the amygdala. The changes produced by a brief painful stimulus likely represent the initial changes in the development of a persistent pain state. This information may allow us to more fully understand the transition from acute to persistent pain and the changes defined may be sensitive to pharmacological modulation. Preventing or inhibiting these pain induced changes may provide better treatment for persistent pain or ideally prevent people undergoing the transition from acute to persistent pain.