The sensory, associative and limbic neocortical structures play a critical role in shaping incoming noxious inputs to generate variable pain perceptions. Technological advances in tracing circuitry and interrogation of pathways and complex behaviours are now yielding critical knowledge of neocortical circuits, cellular contributions and causal relationships between pain perception and its abnormalities in chronic pain. Emerging insights into neocortical pain processing suggest the existence of neocortical causality and specificity for pain at the level of subdomains, circuits and cellular entities and the activity patterns they encode. These mechanisms provide opportunities for therapeutic intervention for improved pain management.

感觉、联想和边缘新皮层结构在塑造传入的有害输入以产生可变疼痛感知方面起着关键作用。追踪回路和询问通路和复杂行为的技术进步现在正在产生关于新皮层回路、细胞贡献以及疼痛感知与其慢性疼痛异常之间的因果关系的关键知识。对新皮层疼痛处理的新见解表明，在子域、回路和细胞实体及其编码的活动模式水平上，新皮层疼痛的因果关系和特异性存在。这些机制为改善疼痛管理的治疗干预提供了机会。