The Emotional Brain as a Predictor and Amplifier of Chronic Pain.

Human neuroimaging studies and complementary animal experiments now identify the gross elements of the brain involved in the chronification of pain. We briefly review these advances in relation to somatic and orofacial persistent pain conditions. First, we emphasize the importance of reverse translational research for understanding chronic pain-that is, the power of deriving hypotheses directly from human brain imaging of clinical conditions that can be invasively and mechanistically studied in animal models. We then review recent findings demonstrating the importance of the emotional brain (i.e., the corticolimbic system) in the modulation of acute pain and in the prediction and amplification of chronic pain, contrasting this evidence with recent findings regarding the role of central sensitization in pain chronification, especially for orofacial pain. We next elaborate on the corticolimbic circuitry and underlying mechanisms that determine the transition to chronic pain. Given this knowledge, we advance a new mechanistic definition of chronic pain and discuss the clinical implications of this new definition as well as novel therapeutic potentials suggested by these advances.

Magnon coherent conductance via atomic nanocontacts.

A calculation for the coherent scattering and conductance of magnons via atomic nanocontacts is presented. The model system is composed of two groups of semi-infinite magnetically ordered Heisenberg monatomic chains, joined together by the magnetic nanocontact, and the system is supported on a non-magnetic substrate and considered otherwise free from magnetic interactions. The coherent transmission and reflection coefficients are derived as elements of a Landauer-type scattering matrix. Transmission and reflection scattering cross sections are calculated specifically for three distinct symmetric and asymmetric geometric configurations of the nanocontact. Three cases of local magnetic exchange on the nanocontact domain are analysed for each configuration to investigate the influence of softening and hardening of the magnetic boundary conditions. In analogy with coherent electronic transport, we calculate the magnon coherent transport. The numerical results show the interference effects between the incident scattered magnons and the localized spin states on the nanocontact, with characteristic Fano resonances. The numerical results yield an understanding of the relationship between the coherent magnon conductance and the architecture of the embedded magnetic nanocontact.