Min Zhuo is a professor in the department of physiology at U of T and the Canada Research Chair in Pain and Cognition. Zhuo and his lab recently published a paper in the journal Neuron that showed how neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to physically re-organize itself in response to experience – can spur the interplay between chronic pain and anxiety. They also showed that a drug they developed for chronic pain can limit anxiety.
The University of Toronto recently published an interview with Dr. Zhuo explaining his team’s work.
Read the interview here: Anxiety and Pain – Two sides of the same synapse?
Original research article:
Coexistence of Two Forms of LTP in ACC Provides a Synaptic Mechanism for the Interactions between Anxiety and Chronic Pain
Kohei Koga, Giannina Descalzi, Tao Chen, Hyoung-Gon Ko, Jinshan Lu, Shermaine Li, Junehee Son, TaeHyun Kim, Chuljung Kwak, Richard L. Huganir, Ming-gao Zhao, Bong-Kiun Kaang, Graham L. Collingridge, Min Zhuo
Neuron Volume 85, Issue 2, p377–389, 21 January 2015
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(14)01102-7
