A new study in mice, carried out by researchers at Heidelberg University Medical Faculty Heidelberg, has helped illuminate how the brain’s primary motor cortex (a region known as M1) helps to suppress dimensions of neuropathic pain.
M1 is a brain region most commonly associated with the control of motor function, but the newly reported results suggest a direct link between this brain region and pain control. The researchers suggested that their findings could inform new neurostimulation therapies for chronic pain management. Reporting on their study in Science “Layer-specific pain relief pathways originating from primary motor cortex”, first author Zheng Gan, PhD, corresponding author Rohini Kuner, PhD, and colleagues concluded, “These results uncover a notable functional dichotomy of circuit connectivity of layer 5 and layer 6 pyramidal neurons of the hindlimb M1 in regulating two distinct components of pain.”
