ArticleChinese medicine2026
A top-down neural circuit for affective-motivational responses of pain relief induced by electroacupuncture.
Article in Chinese medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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1 citing paper in PubMed.
- [Social isolation induces social avoidance in mice: the mediating role of the medial prefrontal cortex glutamatergic neurons].Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical UniversityArticle
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13 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPeripheral neuromodulation, which can be considered as a flow of signals from the body to the brain, influences mental and psychological states. However, whether peripheral neuromodulation, particularly electroacupuncture (EA), may regulate specific neural circuits and evoke affective‒motivational responses remains elusive. Here, we investigate the affective-motivational responses of pain relief following the application of EA in human and animal models in the context of pain.
methodsThe conditioned place preference (CPP), open field test and elevated plus maze tests were used to examine the affective‒motivational responses of pain relief induced by EA in different animal models of pain. EA at acupoint ST36 (2 Hz) was administered. Multi‒electrode array recording, optogenetics, retrograde neuronal tracing, chemogenetics and immunohistochemistry were used to explore the neural circuit mechanisms involved. rAAV virus were used to identify the target projection neurons. A battery of self-report questionnaire was used to assess affective‒motivational responses after EA in patients with chronic low back pain.
resultsEA analgesia induced CPP only in pain states in different animal models of pain. Chronic pain induced negative affective valence of pain. EA attenuated anxious- or depressive-like behaviors in spared nerve injury (SNI) rats. EA robustly activated glutamatergic neurons in the infralimbic cortex (IL) in a pain-dependent manner. The optogenetic activation of IL glutamatergic (IL
conclusionsThese results illustrate an example in which the emotional dimension of pain is directly influenced through the peripheral neuromodulation and provide the basis for the use of EA to target top down neural circuits to relieve chronic pain in psychological and clinical situations.
trial registrationChiCTR1800020029.
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