Cortical Regulation of Nociception of the Trigeminal Nucleus Caudalis

Many chronic pain conditions are resistant to conventional therapy. Promising new approaches to pain management capitalize on the brain’s own mechanisms for controlling pain perception. This article will demonstrate that cortical neurons directly innervate the brainstem to drive feedforward inhibition of nociceptive neurons. This corticotrigeminal pathway suppresses the activity of these neurons and produces analgesia. This corticotrigeminal pathway may constitute a therapeutic target for chronic pain.