title: A key role of the basal ganglia in pain and analgesia--insights gained through human functional imaging.
abstract: The basal ganglia (BG) are composed of several nuclei involved in neural processing related to the execution of motor, cognitive and emotional activities. Preclinical and clinical data have implicated a role for these structures in pain processing. Recently neuroimaging has added important information on BG activation in conditions of acute pain, chronic pain and as a result of drug effects. Our current understanding of alterations in cortical and sub-cortical regions in pain suggests that the BG are uniquely involved in thalamo-cortico-BG loops to integrate many aspects of pain. These include the integration of motor, emotional, autonomic and cognitive responses to pain.
authors.affiliation: PAIN Group, Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, USA. dborsook@partners.org
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borsook
authors.forename: Jaymin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Upadhyay
authors.forename: Eric H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Chudler
authors.forename: Lino
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Becerra
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010146:Pain / Q000378:metabolism*
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