How does the brain adapt as neuropathic pain develops?

A new study by Silvia Cazzanelli, PhD, who carried out her doctoral research in our lab, has just been published in Communications Biology.

The study investigates how brain-wide communication changes during the development and persistence of neuropathic pain.

Using resting-state functional ultrasound imaging, Silvia and her co-authors followed brain activity in male mice at different stages of neuropathic pain, both awake and anesthetized.

The study reveals distinct changes depending on the stage of the condition:

– At pain onset, communication transiently increases between brain regions involved in sensory, motivational and emotional processing.

– During the persistent phase, communication decreases within movement-related networks.

– Despite these changes in specific networks, the overall organization of spontaneous brain activity remains stable.

These findings show phase-dependent adaptations in brain circuits, while the global organization of resting-state brain activity is preserved.

👉 Read the full study

🖼️ 3D rendering of a mouse brain showing some of the regions where the study detected changes in functional connectivity: the hippocampal region, anterior cingulate cortex, infralimbic cortex, insular cortex and hypothalamus. The golden fibres are axonal projections connecting these regions, reconstructed from viral tracer experiments in the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas (Allen Institute for Brain Science).