Sound induces analgesia through corticothalamic circuits.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35857536.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abn4663 and PMC identifier 9636983.
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Abstract
Sound-including music and noise-can relieve pain in humans, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. We discovered that analgesic effects of sound depended on a low (5-decibel) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relative to ambient noise in mice. Viral tracing, microendoscopic calcium imaging, and multitetrode recordings in freely moving mice showed that low-SNR sounds inhibited glutamatergic inputs from the auditory cortex (ACx<sup>Glu</sup>) to the thalamic posterior (PO) and ventral posterior (VP) nuclei. Optogenetic or chemogenetic inhibition of the ACx<sup>Glu</sup>→PO and ACx<sup>Glu</sup>→VP circuits mimicked the low-SNR sound-induced analgesia in inflamed hindpaws and forepaws, respectively. Artificial activation of these two circuits abolished the sound-induced analgesia. Our study reveals the corticothalamic circuits underlying sound-promoted analgesia by deciphering the role of the auditory system in pain processing.
Medical subject headings
- Acoustic Stimulation
- Audioanalgesia
- Auditory Cortex
- Music Therapy
- Pain
- Pain Management
- Pain Perception
- Thalamus