Trends in neurosciences
-
Pain and fear are both aversive experiences that strongly impact on behaviour and well being. They are considered protective when they lead to meaningful, adaptive behaviour such as the avoidance of situations that are potentially dangerous to the integrity of tissue (pain) or the individual (fear). ⋯ Currently emerging concepts of maladaptive pain and fear suggest that basic neuronal mechanisms of memory formation are relevant for the development of pathological forms of pain and fear. Thus, the processes of erasing memory traces of pain and fear may constitute promising targets for future therapies.
-
The roles of opioid receptors in pain and addiction have been extensively studied, but their function in mood disorders has received less attention. Accumulating evidence from animal research reveals that mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors (MORs, DORs and KORs, respectively) exert highly distinct controls over mood-related processes. DOR agonists and KOR antagonists have promising antidepressant potential, whereas the risk-benefit ratio of currently available MOR agonists as antidepressants remains difficult to evaluate, in addition to their inherent abuse liability. To date, both human and animal studies have mainly examined MORs in the etiology of depressive disorders, and future studies will address DOR and KOR function in established and emerging neurobiological aspects of depression, including neurogenesis, neurodevelopment, and social behaviors.
-
Trends in neurosciences · Oct 2012
ReviewPain-related changes in the brain: diagnostic and therapeutic potentials.
Emerging evidence suggests that chronic pain is a disease that can alter brain function. Imaging studies have demonstrated structural remapping and functional reorganization of brain circuits under various pain conditions. ⋯ In theory, physiological changes at the single-unit, multi-unit, and circuitry levels can be used as predictors of pain, and possibly to guide targeted neuromodulation of specific brain regions for therapeutic purposes. Therefore, multidisciplinary research into the mechanisms of pain-related phenomena in the brain may offer insights into novel approaches for the diagnosis, monitoring, and management of persistent pain.
-
Trends in neurosciences · Aug 2011
Neuroimaging markers for the prediction and early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive age-related neurodegenerative disease. At the time of clinical manifestation of dementia, significant irreversible brain damage is already present, rendering the diagnosis of AD at early stages of the disease an urgent prerequisite for therapeutic treatment to halt, or at least slow, disease progression. ⋯ Recent studies that have identified AD-like structural and functional brain changes in elderly people who are cognitively within the normal range or who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are discussed. A dynamic sequence model of changes that occur in neuroimaging markers during the different disease stages is presented and the predictive value of multimodal neuroimaging for AD dementia is considered.