慢性痛严重危害人类健康，然而慢性痛的治疗一直是一大难题，其主要原因在于目前的治疗大多只关注慢性痛的躯体反应，忽视情绪反应和认知障碍。既往文献和我们以往的研究证明前额叶皮质（PFC）和杏仁核（AMY）参与慢性痛所致情感反应和认知障碍，但其具体的作用机制尚不完全清楚。我们近期的超微结构研究表明，慢性痛条件下PFC和AMY脑区内参与痛情绪反应的神经元发生结构可塑性变化。本课题拟在此基础上，深入研究神经病理性痛导致PFC-AMY环路发生结构可塑性变化的分子机制；揭示PFC-AMY环路在慢性痛情感和认知障碍慢性化中的作用和机制；阐明情感认知障碍对慢性痛发生发展过程的影响。这些研究可以拓展对慢性痛引起的情绪和认知障碍发生机制的认识，为开发针对慢性痛的有效治疗策略提供新的理论依据。

It is well known that chronic pain reduces the quality of life, while the perspective of chronic pain therapy is not so optimistic. Most of the difficulty is that the majority of the treatments mainly focused on the pain perception, while neglecting the emotion and cognition disorders accompanying with pain. Previous researches and our studies showed that prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala (AMY) participated in the formation of the emotion and cognition disorders caused by the chronic pain, yet its mechanism is still unclear. Our recent ultrastructural studies indicated that the structural plasticity of neurons in the PFC and AMY areas was related to the emotion and cognition disorders caused by the chronic pain. Base on these, we want to take further steps to study the plasticity of PFC-AMY circuit and their molecular mechanisms under a chronic neuropathic pain-like state, reveal the roles and mechanisms of PFC-AMY circuit in the chronicity of pain-related emotion and cognition disorders, and elucidate the affections of emotion and cognition disorders in the development of chronic pain. These research could open pathways for further research about the mechanisms of pain-related emotion and cognition disorders, and provide some new theoretical guidance for the therapeutic strategy of chronic pain.