Table 4 Components of the Basal Ganglia - Putative Function in Pain Processing.

Caudate

Involved in avoidance behavior to pain

[169]

Decrease pain sensitivity following apomorphine injections

[14]

Encode noxious stimuli intensity to minimize bodily harm

[9]

Behavioral Reinforcement (? Including Pain)

[3]

Putamen

Somatotopic modulation of pain

[148]

Variations in subjective ratings of pain

[135]

Nucleus Accumbens

Affective Valence for Reward and Aversive Stimuli

[45, 170]

Processing of emotional salience of pain

[135]

Globus Pallidus

Encoding of behavioral repertoires (? Including pain)

[3]

Deep brain stimulation inhibits pain

[89, 171]

Morphine analgesia

[172]

Subthalamic Nucleus

Functional suppression of neural messages

[173]

Behavioral Inhibition

[174]

Regulates level of execution of cortical commands; processing of emotional, cognitive and motor behavior

[3]

Substantia Nigra

Heterogeneous response to aversive stimuli

[96]