The best way to relieve pain
According to a new research, nerve cells or neurons control memories of pain are stored in the brain and they can be erased to relieve pain.
It is known that the central nervous system is "remember" painful experiences that they leave a memory trace of pain. And when there is new sensory input, the pain memory trace in the brain magnifies the feeling so that even a gentle touch can be excruciating.
Terence Coderre, neuroscientist from McGill University said:
"The best example of a pain memory trace is found with phantom limb pain. It is interestingly that patients with amputated limb due to gangrene continue to feel they are suffering from pain in the absent limb."
Previous research revealed that the protein kinase PKMzeta plays an important role in building and maintaining memory by strengthening the connections between neurons (nerve cells).
Now Coderre and his colleagues have discovered that PKMzeta is also the key to understanding how the memory of pain is stored in the neurons. They were able to show that after painful stimulation, the level of PKMzeta increases persistently in the central nervous system (CNS).
The researchers also found that by blocking the activity of PKMzeta at the neuronal level reverses the hypersensitivity to pain that neurons develop after irritating the skin by applying capsaicin- the active ingredient in hot peppers.
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