Instrumental role of cortico-striatal neurons of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in the manifestation of pain-related unpleasantness

CONSTANZA ILARRAZ; MARÍA JESÚS TRUJILLO; MARIO ACUÑA; AGOSTINA PRESTA; THOMAS NEVIAN; FERNANDO KASANETZ

San Luis

Congreso; XXXVIII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2023

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

The perception of pain is a multidimensional experience arising from distributed brainactivity. However, how the brain encodes this experience remains elusive. Particularly,little is known about the neuronal mechanisms associated with the unpleasantness thatcharacterizes pain.A key structure for the affective processing of pain is the Anterior Cingulate Cortex(ACC). The dense excitatory connections between the ACC and the dorso-medialstriatum may serve as a path for nociceptive information to the mesolimbic system,critical for the motivational modulation of behavior. Here we addressed the instrumentalrole of ACC cortico-striatal (ACC-CS) neurons in pain-related behaviors using achemogenetic approach with inhibitory dreadds to interfere with their activity.We characterized in mice reflexive responses to noxious stimuli and more complexbehaviors that reflect the subject’s motivation to alleviate aversive sensations.Preliminary results indicate that the inhibition of ACC-CS neurons impaired theprocessing of pain-associated aversion. Thus, dreadd-treated mice showed a defectiveperformance in a real-time conditioned place avoidance test, where control animalsavoided spending time in a compartment paired with a noxious stimulus.Finally, additional to extensive behavioral analysis, we are monitoring the activity of ACCCS neurons through in vivo neuronal calcium imaging using a miniature microscope todiscern their role in the encoding of pain-related behaviors.