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Heading Up Cures
22 January 2018

Heading Up Cures

Headaches are one of the most common health complaints among people in the UK. Sufferers rate their experience of head and facial pain as more severe and having a more emotional toll than pain experienced elsewhere in the body. This emotional response has yet to be explained and so researchers looked into possible underlying reasons. When tracking neuronal activity in the brains of mice, they found that sensory nerves from the head and face (pictured in green) feed into the amygdala – a part of the brain responsible for processing emotions – via another brain area called the parabrachial nucleus (PBL, pictured in pink). They also saw that irritating the face led to higher activity in the PBL, and therefore heightened emotions. This insight will not only aid understanding of head and facial pain, but also help to create targeted treatments.

Written by Katie Panteli

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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