Chronic, pathological pain remains a global health problem and a challenge to basic and
clinical sciences. A major obstacle to preventing, treating, or reverting chronic pain has been …

Although it is now generally accepted that the thalamus is more than a simple relay of
sensory signals to the cortex, we are just beginning to gain an understanding of how …

The primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is a hub for body sensation of both innocuous and
noxious signals, yet its role in somatosensation versus pain is debated. Despite known …

Pain is a complex experience encompassing sensory-discriminative, affective-motivational
and cognitiv e-emotional components mediated by different mechanisms. Contrary to the …

Large portions of the thalamus receive strong driving input from cortical layer 5 (L5) neurons
but the role of this important pathway in cortical and thalamic computations is not well …

Although corticothalamic feedback is ubiquitous across species and modalities, its role in
sensory processing is unclear. This study provides a detailed description of the visual …

Nociceptive and tactile information is processed in the somatosensory system via reciprocal
(ie, feedforward and feedback) projections between the thalamus, the primary (S1) and …

The direction of functional information flow in the sensory thalamocortical circuit may play a
role in stimulus perception, but, surprisingly, this process is poorly understood. We …

Within the reticular thalamic nucleus neurons express gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)
and these cells project to the ventral posteromedial thalamic nucleus. When GABA activity …

Deep, dreamless sleep is considered the only “normal” state under which consciousness is
lost. The main reason for the voluntary, external induction of an unconscious state, via …