Project Grant K99NS151133

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, awarded Massachusetts Institute of Technology $129,168 on August 1, 2026, under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders program (CFDA 93.853) to support research on the modulation of autonomic function by affective pain pathways.

The research interrogates the role of the parabrachial-limbic circuit and reciprocal connections between the central amygdala and parabrachial nucleus in autonomic nervous system responses during acute, persistent, and chronic pain states. The work uses computational analysis of neural activity in mouse models to correlate central amygdala neuron activity with behavior and autonomic responses, testing whether different populations of central amygdala neurons differentially modulate autonomic responses and pain behaviors through projections to the parabrachial nucleus. The research aims to establish how autonomic function changes as pain transitions from acute to chronic and to identify parabrachial nucleus neuron populations persistently active during pain states.

Performance occurs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a period of performance from August 1, 2026, through July 31, 2028. This is a project grant, the standard assistance type for NINDS extramural research funding.