http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A group of Portuguese researchers from IBMC and FMUP at the University of Porto has found the reason why patients with chronic pain often suffer from impaired short –term memory. The study, to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows how persistent pain disrupts the flow of information between two brain regions crucial to retain temporary memories. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-chronic-pain-disrupts-short-term.html Neuroscience Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:25:48 EST news279444279 The skin is a human being's largest sensory organ, helping to distinguish between a pleasant contact, like a caress, and a negative sensation, like a pinch or a burn. Previous studies have shown that these sensations are carried to the brain by different types of sensory neurons that have nerve endings in the skin. Only a few of those neuron types have been identified, however, and most of those detect painful stimuli. Now biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified in mice a specific class of skin sensory neurons that reacts to an apparently pleasurable stimulus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensations-biologists-individual-neurons-skin.html Neuroscience Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:04:59 EST news278780662 Deliberately inflicting carefully controlled painful stimuli on human volunteers and seeing how well specific drugs reduce the feeling of pain can be an effective way of testing new drugs. So conclude two researchers who reviewed the available literature on these types of tests in a paper published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-pain-killers-humans-money-drugs.html Medications Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:55:57 EST news271601744 Pain? Just turn it off! It may sound like science fiction, but researchers based in Munich, Berkeley and Bordeaux have now succeeded in inhibiting pain-sensitive neurons on demand, in the laboratory. The crucial element in their strategy is a chemical sensor that acts as a light-sensitive switch. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-pain-chemists-light-controlled-neural-inhibitor.html Medical research Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:10:02 EST news249125900 Babies can distinguish painful stimuli as different from general touch from around 35-37 weeks gestation – just before an infant would normally be born – according to new research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-babies-distinguish-pain-weeks.html Neuroscience Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:38:02 EST news234704268