Functional plasticity of cortico-striatal neurons of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex during the transition to chronic pain.

TRUJILLO MARÍA JESÚS; KASANETZ FERNANDO; ILLARRAZ CONSTANZA

Villa Carlos Paz

Congreso; XXXIV Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a debilitating neurological condition of high clinical relevance. At the cellular level, the increased sensitivity to pain is mediated by changes in neuronal function along the entire nociceptive pathway.The Anterior Cingular Cortex (ACC) is essential for the perception of the affective dimension of pain and is hyperactive in patients suffering from chronic pain and in animal models of NP.Recent studies in patients suggest that abnormal recruitment of basal ganglia (BG) structures, involved in the motivational evaluation of stimuli and actions, may facilitate the persistence of pain. However, there is so far little evidence on how BG pathways are affected during chronic pain.In this context, our hypothesis is that projections from the ACC to dorsomedial striatum could serve as a direct route for spreading out pathological cortical activity to BG.To gain insight on this, here we evaluated if enhanced ACC excitability during NP engages neurons that project to the striatum. Combining neuronal identification with fluorescent retrograde tracers and ex-vivo electrophysiological recordings (brain slices), we studied the dynamics of synaptic properties and intrinsic excitability of ACC cortico-striatal neurons during the transition to chronic pain in a rodent model of NP. Our preliminary results suggest that neuronal plasticity in the ACC is cell-type specific and evolves during pain chronification.