Abstract
Abstract The transduction of painful stimuli into the experience of pain involves several peripheral and central signaling pathways of the nervous system. The organization of these pathways parallels the main functions of pain: the assessment of noxious stimuli (where, what, how strong), and the negative emotion of unpleasantness. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the thalamocortical (TC) system, which interprets ascending pain signals, has two main pathways which support these functions. We discuss the structural and functional findings that support the view that the lateral TC pathway is involved in discriminative assessment of pain, while the medial TC pathway gives rise to aversive emotions associated with pain. Our review focuses on acute pain, but we also discuss putative TC maladaptations in humans and animal models of pain that are thought to underlie pathological pain sensations.
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