What is the role of the cingulate cortex in pain?
Eduardo E. Benarroch
Abstract
Pain is a complex experience that is perceived as signaling potential danger and has sensory-discriminative, emotional, motivational, and behavioral components. Consistent with its complexity, pain activates several brain areas that form part of distributed networks. The cingulate cortex is a major hub in many of these networks and has a critical role in several aspects of pain processing.1 Functional neuroimaging studies in humans indicate that emotional, cognitive, and motor responses to pain involve different portions of the cingulate cortex.2–4 Studies in mouse models show that areas of the cingulate cortex undergo profound plastic changes in structure and synaptic function in the setting of acute and chronic pain.5,6 The cingulate cortex thus provides a target for neuromodulation using deep brain stimulation (DBS).7