Table Of ContentMETHODS IN
PAIN RESEARCH
0035-FM-frame Page 2 Tuesday, May 8, 2001 10:16 AM
METHODS & NEW FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
Series Editors
Sidney A. Simon, Ph.D.
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D.
Published Titles
Apoptosis in Neurobiology
Yusuf A. Hannun, M.D., Professor/Biomedical Research and Department Chairman/
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina
Rose-Mary Boustany, M.D., tenured Associate Professor/Pediatrics and Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
Methods for Neural Ensemble Recordings
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor/Department of Neurobiology,
Duke University Medical Center
Methods of Behavioral Analysis in Neuroscience
Jerry J. Buccafusco, Ph.D., Professor/Pharmacology and Toxicology,
Professor/Psychiatry and Health Behavior, Medical College of Georgia
Neural Prostheses for Restoration of Sensory and Motor Function
John K. Chapin, Ph.D., MCP and Hahnemann School of Medicine
Karen A. Moxon, Ph.D., Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Drexel University
Computational Neuroscience: Realistic Modeling for Experimentalists
Eric DeSchutter, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine, University of Antwerp
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METHODS IN
PAIN RESEARCH
Edited by Lawrence Kruger
Professor of Neurobiology (Emeritus)
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
School of Medicine
Los Angeles, CA
CRC Press
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Methods in pain research / edited by Lawrence Kruger.
p. cm. (Methods & new frontiers in neuroscience)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8493-0035-5 (alk. paper)
1. Pain—research—Methodology. I. Kruger, Lawrence. II. Methods & new frontiers in
neuroscience series.
[DNLM: 1. Pain. 2. Research—methods. WL 704 M592 2001]
RB127 .M46 2001
616′.0472′072—dc21 2001025410
CIP
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Methods & New Frontiers
in Neuroscience
Series Editors
Sidney A. Simon, Ph.D.
Miguel A.L. Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D.
Our goal in creating the Methods & New Frontiers in Neuroscience Series is to
present the insights of experts on emerging experimental techniques and theoretical
concepts that are, or will be, at the vanguard of neuroscience. Books in the series
cover topics ranging from methods to investigate apoptosis to modern techniques
for neural ensemble recordings in behaving animals. The series also covers new and
exciting multidisciplinary areas of brain research, such as computational neuro-
science and neuroengineering, and describes breakthroughs in classical fields such
as behavioral neuroscience. We want these to be the books every neuroscientist will
use in order to get acquainted with new methodologies in brain research. These
books can be given to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows when they are
looking for guidance to start a new line of research.
Each book is edited by an expert and consists of chapters written by the leaders
in a particular field. Books are richly illustrated and contain comprehensive bibli-
ographies. Chapters provide substantial background material relevant to the partic-
ular subject. Hence, they are not just “methods books.” They contain detailed “tricks
of the trade” and information as to where these methods can be safely applied. In
addition, they include information about where to buy equipment and websites that
are helpful in solving both practical and theoretical problems.
We hope that as the volumes become available the effort put in by us, the
publisher, the book editors, and individual authors will contribute to the further
development of brain research. The extent that we achieve this goal will be deter-
mined by the utility of these books.
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Preface
The invitation to assemble a book on methodology in pain research proffered by
my longtime colleagues, Sid Simon and Miguel Nicolelis, was initially received
with considerable uncertainty and hesitation. “Pain” encompasses a rather vast field
of research and is hardly a subject that could be reduced to a few formulaic chapters
describing laboratory protocols ranging from surgical techniques to automated
molecular biology, each of which could encompass an entire volume and still prove
inadequate for the needs of investigators seeking methodological guidance in this
field of endeavor. Discussions with several friends whose research interests are
deeply committed to studying pain persuaded me to recognize that this is no longer
an era of publishing lab cookbooks that would be largely out of date by the time
they emerge from the printing press. Besides, we are now in an epoch in which
new technologies are being developed at a terrifying pace in such areas as high
throughput methods, chemical genomics, microarray applications, genotyping, and
proteomics. The modern investigator keeps current on such rapidly advancing
subjects via the World Wide Web, and protocols generally are supplied by vendors
of apparatus and reagents.
But pain research, despite its vastness, is something quite different and special;
in part because of its breadth, but largely because it touches upon a subjective report
in humans that is poorly understood and yet of fundamental importance and interest
to everyone. Pain remains the singular most common complaint of patients world-
wide, and this is followed by the next most prevalent affliction — the related
phenomenon of itch. Yet pain has not reached the status of a targeted “disease;” it
is clearly part of ordinary human experience. It stands apart from other sensations
by often being dissociated from a distinctive stimulus condition; i.e., pain can be
elicited by apparently innocuous stimuli in pathology or when applied to previously
injured tissues. Thus, pain can be described pragmatically as a response to a variety
of stimuli and contextual circumstances. Unlike other sensations, it can be altered
significantly by widely known drugs, many of which are “controlled substances,”
imposing serious societal problems and consequent encumbrances for laboratory
study. Finally, it should be emphasized that specific nerve fibers, now called
“nociceptors,” were disavowed explicitly over much of the last few decades. Now
that laboratory experiments can reveal and enable investigators to parse stimulus
and response variables, the field has attracted profoundly expanded interest.
Many of the relevant methods are employed in other areas of neuroscience
research and some of the specific techniques are covered in several excellent mono-
graphs in the CRC Press series joined by this volume. We have attempted here to
select topics and authors to meet the needs of investigators seeking guidance on the
“how” and the “means” for studying the idiosyncratic features of pain research.
Major areas of contemporary efforts are outlined and explained, and sources are
