Nitsan Goldstein

The paper identifies a population of neurons in the oval division of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (ovBNST) that are activated by anesthetics and anxiolytics, modulating anxiety-like behaviors and autonomic responses.

This study demonstrates that conditioning with activation of a central pain-suppressing circuit can engineer placebo analgesia in mice, showing that context-dependent pain relief can be achieved through learned associations.

The paper identifies parabrachial neurons expressing the NPY Y1 receptor as a hub that suppresses sustained pain through NPY signaling.