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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Box-By-The-Riviera™ who wrote (137792)	12/8/2001 2:08:14 PM
From: NOW	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Scientists finally prove something SM fans know all along: December 7, 2001 WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) - Scientists have discovered that the brain's response to pain appears to follow a pathway similar to that of the pleasure response. The findings could one day lead to better treatments for people suffering chronic pain, according to lead author Dr. David Borsook of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Using functional MRI, Dr. Borsook and colleagues monitored the brain's response to painful stimuli in eight healthy male volunteers. Heat probes were placed on the back of the men's hands. During the first round of the experiment, the probe was at a temperature that produced no pain. During the second round, the probe was kept at 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) for 25 seconds--enough heat to generate pain. The brain response generated by the two different temperatures was different, the researchers report in the December 6th issue of the journal Neuron. The painful stimuli activated the brain's "reward" circuitry, which has previously been shown to respond to drugs, pleasant tastes and other pleasurable stimuli. "This is the first data to define circuitry that responds to [painful] stimuli that is similar to the circuitry classically defined for rewarding stimuli," Dr. Borsook explained in an interview with Reuters Health. The findings provide "insight into a circuitry that may provide a basis for understanding 'suffering' as a response to chronic pain," he said. Chronic pain affects 30% to 50% of the adult population in the US, Dr. Borsook noted. "Our understanding of how pain is differentially interpreted in the central nervous system of humans has been significantly advanced with the ability to image neural pathways...involved in...experimental or clinical painful stimulus," he said. "Our goal in the current work was to better understand the neural networks involved in the sensory...components of pain," he added. Dr. Borsook said that eventually, his team plans to generate maps of different types of pain with the hope of finding different agents that will target specific types of pain. Neuron 2001;32:927-946.