• Minjie Huang, Guoqing Wang, Yazhou Lin, Yanyan Guo, Xiuhua Ren, Jinping Shao, Jing Cao, Weidong Zang, and Zhihua Li.
• Department of Human Anatomy, Basic Medical Sciences College, 12636Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China.
• Mol Pain. 2022 Apr 1; 18: 1744806922114509617448069221145096.

AbstractPain involves both sensory and affective dimensions. The amygdala is a key player in linking nociceptive stimuli to negative emotional behaviors or affective states. Relief of pain is rewarding and activates brain reward circuits. Whether the reward circuit from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the central amygdala (CeA) is involved in pain relief remains unexplored. Using a model of experimental postsurgical pain, we found that pain relief elicited conditioned place preference (CPP), activated CeA-projecting dopaminergic cells in the VTA, and decreased dopaminergic D2 receptor expression in the CeA. Activation of the VTA-CeA neural pathway using optogenetic approaches relieved incisional pain. Administration of a D2 receptor agonist reversed the pain relief elicited by light-induced activation of the VTA-CeA pathway. These findings indicate that the VTA-CeA circuit is involved in pain relief in mice via dopamine receptor D2 in the CeA.

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