Characterization of the light response of rostral ventromedial medulla pain-modulating neurons

Despite substantial progress in understanding pain mechanisms, inadequate pain management persists as a problem affecting millions of people globally.1 One reason that pain is difficult to treat is that the experience of pain is subjective and unique to every individual, representing the interaction between two systems: pain transmission and pain modulation. The goal was to further characterize this response to light under the hypothesis that light-responsive cells would show differences in response to light of different wavelengths and intensities.