ArticleNature communications2018
Top-down descending facilitation of spinal sensory excitatory transmission from the anterior cingulate cortex.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 147 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
147 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 238 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pain, mindfulness, and placebo: a systematic review.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis or Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Pain research & management · 2023Pooled it
- [Mechanistic role of spinal Lamb1 in negative emotionZhong nan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Central South University. Medical sciences · 2026Article
- Altered Brain Functional Connectivity in Postherpetic Neuralgia and Its Association With Neuropathic Pain.Journal of clinical neurology (Seoul, Korea) · 2026Article
- Temporal Transcriptomic Changes in the Cingulate Cortex of Neuropathic Pain Mice.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- A Novel Long-range Excitatory Neural Circuit from the Magnocellular Red Nucleus to Spinal Dorsal Horn Facilitates Neuropathic Pain-like Behaviors in Male Mice.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- Virtual Reality as a Digital Premedication to Alleviate Preoperative Anxiety and Postoperative Pain in Patients Undergoing Spine Surgery: Study Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Whole-brain efferent projections of glutamatergic neurons in the cingulate cortex of mice.Molecular brain · 2026Article
- Chronic random sleep deprivation causes prolonged pain hypersensitivity via the anterior cingulate cortex.iScience · 2026Article
- Cellular coding of ingestion in the caudal brainstem.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Chronic stress increases the susceptibility to chronic vulvar pain following acute vulvar inflammation in a preclinical model of vulvodynia.Molecular brain · 2026Article
- Dorsal root ganglion neuromodulation restores accumbal gate to inhibit mechanical allodynia.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Exploring the Pain-Relieving Potential: Unveiling Antinociceptive Properties in Animal Venoms and Toxins.Toxins · 2026Review
- Modulation of Posterior Insula Selectively Enhances Nociceptive Sensory Gating in Humans.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- The function of chemokine-driven glial-neuronal interaction in chronic pain.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Synaptic plasticity in affective comorbidities of neuropathic pain: a bibliometric analysis based on WoSCC and PubMed (2003-2025).Frontiers in neurology · 2026Article
- TMEM251 loss-induced autophagy dysfunction in the anterior cingulate cortex contributes to chronic postoperative pain.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- CRH neurons in the AM-ACC circuit drive chronic pain and anxiety comorbidity.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Nasal respiration modulates pain perception via the olfactory Bulb-Anterior cingulate cortex circuit.iScience · 2025Article
87 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Spinal sensory transmission is under descending biphasic modulation, and descending facilitation is believed to contribute to chronic pain. Descending modulation from the brainstem rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) has been the most studied, whereas little is known about direct corticospinal modulation. Here, we found that stimulation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) potentiated spinal excitatory synaptic transmission and this modulation is independent of the RVM. Peripheral nerve injury enhanced the spinal synaptic transmission and occluded the ACC-spinal cord facilitation. Inhibition of ACC reduced the enhanced spinal synaptic transmission caused by nerve injury. Finally, using optogenetics, we showed that selective activation of ACC-spinal cord projecting neurons caused behavioral pain sensitization, while inhibiting the projection induced analgesic effects. Our results provide strong evidence that ACC stimulation facilitates spinal sensory excitatory transmission by a RVM-independent manner, and that such top-down facilitation may contribute to the process of chronic neuropathic pain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.