Placebo effects are beneficial effects that are attributable to the brain–mind responses to the
context in which a treatment is delivered rather than to the specific actions of the drug. They …

Pain is fundamentally unpleasant, a feature that protects the organism by promoting
motivation and learning. Relief of aversive states, including pain, is rewarding. The …

Pain is a subjective sensory experience that can, mostly, be reported but cannot be directly
measured or quantified. Nevertheless, a suite of biomarkers related to mechanisms, neural …

Our understanding of chronic pain involves complex brain circuits that include sensory,
emotional, cognitive and interoceptive processing. The feed-forward interactions between …

A specialized cubic-millimeter hotspot in the rostrodorsal quadrant of medial shell in nucleus
accumbens (NAc) of rats may mediate opioid enhancement of gustatory hedonic impact or …

There are many known risk factors for chronic pain conditions, yet the biological
underpinnings that link these factors to abnormal processing of painful signals are only just …

The opioid epidemic has led to a serious examination of the use of opioids for the treatment
of pain. Opioid drugs are effective due to the expression of opioid receptors throughout the …

Prescription opioid misuse and addiction among chronic pain patients are emerging public
health concerns of considerable significance. Estimates suggest that more than 10% of …

Although pain is familiar to almost everyone, its precise definition continues to be elusive.
Pain is most often viewed in the realm of somatosensation. However, this conceptualization …

The midbrain dopamine center comprises a key network for reward, salience, motivation,
and mood. Evidence from various clinical and preclinical settings points to the midbrain …