Breathe Through Pain

When you stub your toe, you take a quick breath. More severe injury leads to more intense panting. This intrinsic link between breathing and pain or anxiety is not well understood. Now a study has revealed an interconnected network of neurons in the brain that explains the relationship. Researchers examined a region of the brainstem (pictured) and found some neurons (red) projecting to the amygdala, where fear and pain are processed, and others (green) reaching into the pre-Bötzinger complex, which orchestrates breathing rhythm. Experiments showed that stimulating cells in one region had impacts in the other. This provides a possible explanation for opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD) – the condition that causes many opioid overdose deaths as a result of pain relief also reducing breathing. This could lead to new approaches to pain reduction without risking OIRD, improve our understanding of anxiety, and help everyone breathe a little easier.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Shijia Liu and colleagues, Salk Institute
• Peptide Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Neuron, December 2021