It is commonly known that the experiences of pain help both humans and animals to avoid potentially harmful situations. In recent two decades, progress in research techniques substantially helps researchers to investigate the neural mechanisms of pain. The perception and expression of pain engages the whole neural axis from the peripheral to central nervous system, and an interdisciplinary approach is needed to elucidate the whole picture of pain. How animals and humans process pain and what the influence of emotions and cognitions on pain remain largely unknown. As for the aspect of investigation, how researchers approach pain in animals and humans is a critical issue. What is even more challenging is the neural basis for chronic pain, which results from the aberrant interactions among the bottom-up pain transmission, descending pain inhibition and top-down emotional and cognitive modulations.
In this course, we will discuss the neural mechanisms responsible for both physiological and pathological pain and discuss future research ideas, which would provide a promising direction for conquering pain in the future.