A lecture given by:
Alex Binshtok
Department of Medical Neurobiology, Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada and Center for Research on Pain The Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel
On the topic of:
"Follow the Pain: Somatotopically-Based Approach to Study Mechanisms of Detection, Transmission and Perpetuation of Pain"
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Abstract:
Pain is a multidimensional and multilevel experience involving complex sensory processing. Chronic pain, in which pain occurs without obvious underlying pathology, represents the highest level of complexity since there is no defined stimulus that initiates the process; yet once initiated, the pain becomes perpetual, due to multilevel plastic changes occurring from the level of primary sensory neurons all the way up to the cerebral cortex. Inadequate comprehensive understanding of pain mechanisms is likely the reason that chronic pain has been implicated as the most prevalent unmet medical need today.
I will discuss the peripheral and central mechanisms triggering plastic changes along the pain-related neuroaxis and will describe the principles of novel approaches we are developing to identify local neuronal circuits involved in processing of pain related information.
