A nociceptive amygdala-striatal pathway for chronic pain aversion

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is essential for assigning positive or negative valence to sensory stimuli. Noxious stimuli that cause pain are encoded by an ensemble of nociceptive BLA projection neurons (BLAnoci ensemble). However, the role of the BLAnoci ensemble in mediating behavior changes and the molecular signatures and downstream targets distinguishing this ensemble remain poorly understood. Here, we show that the same BLAnoci ensemble neurons are required for both acute and chronic neuropathic pain behavior. Using single nucleus RNA-sequencing, we characterized the effect of acute and chronic pain on the BLA and identified enrichment for genes with known functions in axonal and synaptic organization and pain perception. We thus examined the brain-wide targets of the BLAnoci ensemble and uncovered a previously undescribed nociceptive hotspot of the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) that mirrors the stability and specificity of the BLAnoci ensemble and is recruited in chronic pain. Notably, BLAnoci ensemble axons transmit acute and neuropathic nociceptive information to the NAcSh, highlighting this nociceptive amygdala-striatal circuit as a unique pathway for affective-motivational responses across pain states.