Brain Circuits Encoding Reward from Pain Relief.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanistic and neuroimaging literature without systematic review methodology.
PubMed 26603560 · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2015.09.003
What was done
The authors reviewed electrophysiological, neuroimaging, and behavioral literature to outline the neural circuits responsible for the hedonic and reinforcing properties of pain relief.
What was found
The abstract provides no numerical data. It reports that pain relief produces rewarding effects through opioid signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex, activation of midbrain dopamine neurons, and subsequent dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens.
Why it matters
Mapping the brain circuits that mediate the rewarding aspects of pain reduction may inform the development of more effective therapies for acute and chronic pain management.
Limits
The abstract reports no search criteria, study counts, or quantitative metrics. As a narrative review, it combines preclinical and human findings without a systematic quality assessment or meta-analysis.
Cited by
- supports The removal of a painful stimulus or transitioning from an extreme temperature to thermal comfort causes dopamine release.
- supports The cessation or removal of a painful or difficult stimulus causes a neurochemical increase in catecholamines including dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine.