Laura Marquez

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

Pain is significantly complex and has been treated widely with opioids. Understanding the pain pathway is essential for adequate treatment while avoiding opioid addiction. The main purpose of this honor’s project was to use research from Dr. Akshay Parchure’s dissertation to understand the effects of pain on several brain structures. His recorded data of the local field potentials from four groups of three rats each were used. The main structures of interest in this project included the tail region of the ventral tegmental area and the anterior cingulate cortex. Four groups of three rats each were used for experimentation. Formalin, a solution causing inflammation, was injected into two groups. One of these was additionally treated with morphine to reduce pain. Two control groups were injected with only saline or morphine respectively. The local field potentials for delta, theta, beta, alpha, and gamma waves of each region were compared between the groups. The formalin group was expected to have a higher response, indicating pain presence. The morphine and formalin injections should have caused a lower response than formalin. The two control groups should have shown similar responses. Statistical analysis through plotting the means of each group to produce graphs and subsequently inputting the data into SPSS revealed no statistical significance between groups. Both within-subjects and between-subjects repeated measures ANOVAs were produced for all brain waves of both brain regions. All relevant data produced p-values above the alpha value of 0.05, thus rendering the data statistically insignificant.

Publication Date

5-1-2021

Language

English

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