The neurobiology of pain

This is a very exciting time in the field of pain research. Major advances are occurring at every level of analysis, from development to neural plasticity in the adult and from the transduction of a noxious stimulus in a primary afferent neuron to the impact of this stimulus on cortical circuitry. The molecular identity of nociceptors, their stimulus transduction processes, and the ion channels involved in the generation, modulation, and propagation of action potentials along the axons in which these nociceptors are present are being vigorously pursued. Similarly, tremendous progress has occurred in the identification of the receptors, transmitters, second messenger systems, transcription factors, and signaling molecules underlying the neural plasticity observed in the spinal cord and brain stem after tissue or nerve injury. With recent insight into the pharmacology of different neural circuits, the importance of descending modulatory systems in the response of the nervous system to persistent pain after injury is being reevaluated. Finally, imaging studies have revealed that information about tissue damage is distributed at multiple forebrain sites involved in attentional, motivational, and cognitive aspects of the pain experience.

These major advances in pain research were the subject of a National Academy of Sciences colloquium entitled “The Neurobiology of Pain,” held at the Beckman Center of the Academy in Irvine, California on December 11–13, 1998. The meeting was organized by John Liebeskind (deceased), Ronald Dubner, and Michael Gold. Its purpose was to bring together pain research scientists and those in related fields who have made recent major advances in the development, cellular, and molecular biology and integrative neurosciences related to the neurobiology of pain. The colloquium was organized into six sessions, each with a separate theme: channels, receptors, imaging and systems neuroscience, growth factors and cytokines, development and plasticity, and molecular genetics. There was ample opportunity for …