ArticleNature neuroscience2023
Prefrontal engrams of long-term fear memory perpetuate pain perception.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neural correlates of harm avoidance: a multimodal meta-analysis of brain structural and resting-state functional neuroimaging studies.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Neuroregulatory mechanism of heat-sensitive moxibustion on the Dubi acupoint (ST 35) in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.Frontiers in neurologyTrial
- Deconstruction of a memory engram reveals distinct ensembles recruited at learning.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Distinct Grey Matter Alterations in Untreated Mild to Moderate Chronic Low Back Pain: A Longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Observational
- A corticothalamic circuit modulates pain sensitivity and mediates innate fear-induced analgesia in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Recent progress in chronic pain-related negative emotions and cognitive dysfunction: insights into the mechanisms underlying neural circuitry.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Pain-Related Fear Modulates Attentional Bias for Threat Processing in Chronic Pain: An ERP Study.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Dysfunction of the paraventricular thalamus-prelimbic cortex circuit underlies maternal separation-induced deficits in contagious pain.Science advances · 2025Article
- Chronic pain is linked to a resting-state neural archetype that optimizes learning from punishments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Pain Perception and Modulation: Fundamental Neurobiology and Recent Advances.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Exploring electroencephalographic chronic pain biomarkers: a mega-analysis.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Activation of Locus Coeruleus-Hippocampus Tyrosine Hydroxylase Projection Contributes to the Surgical Incision Pain-Induced Memory Consolidation Enhancement in Mice.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Article
- A novel finding on the sex-dependent role of BDNF and GSK-3beta in the medial prefrontal cortex in pain threshold changes in a rat model of fear conditioning with respect to the effect of extinction and the time period after conditioning.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- Examination of the Relationship Between Pain Intensity, Pain Perceptions, and Kinesiophobia in Patients with Non-Specific Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.Muscles (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mimicking opioid analgesia in cortical pain circuits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Risk Factors for Chronic Post-Surgical Pain in the Elderly: A Single-Center Retrospective Study.Clinical interventions in aging · 2025Article
- Disruptions in cortical circuit connectivity distinguish widespread hyperalgesia from localized pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Decoding chronic pain: the glutamate-GABA tug of war in the cerebral cortex.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A painful episode can lead to a life-long increase in an individual's experience of pain. Fearful anticipation of imminent pain could play a role in this phenomenon, but the neurobiological underpinnings are unclear because fear can both suppress and enhance pain. Here, we show in mice that long-term associative fear memory stored in neuronal engrams in the prefrontal cortex determines whether a painful episode shapes pain experience later in life. Furthermore, under conditions of inflammatory and neuropathic pain, prefrontal fear engrams expand to encompass neurons representing nociception and tactile sensation, leading to pronounced changes in prefrontal connectivity to fear-relevant brain areas. Conversely, silencing prefrontal fear engrams reverses chronically established hyperalgesia and allodynia. These results reveal that a discrete subset of prefrontal cortex neurons can account for the debilitating comorbidity of fear and chronic pain and show that attenuating the fear memory of pain can alleviate chronic pain itself.
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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.