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. 2020 Nov 7;10(11):826. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10110826

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Brain Regions Implicated in Pain, Depression, and Alcohol Addiction. In this model, brain regions implicated in pain processing include the prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, thalamus, basal ganglia (BG), amygdala (AMY), parabrachial nucleus (PB), periaqueductal gray (PAG), rostroventral medulla (RVM), primary and secondary sensory areas (S1, S2), superior parietal lobe (SPL), and cerebellum [20]. Structural, functional, and metabolic changes in the first three regions, PFC, ACC, and insula, in particular have been consistently reported in association with chronic pain disorders. Brain regions associated with depression are the PFC, ACC, insula, thalamus, BG, AMY, hippocampus (HIPP), hypothalamus (Hyp), ventral tegmental area (VT), raphe nuclei (RN) and locus coeruleus (LC) [19]. The three stages of development and maintenance of addiction to alcohol and the regions associated with it [8] include: a binge intoxication stage (BG, thalamus, nucleus accumbens (NAc)); a withdrawal-negative-affect stage (AMY, PB, LC); and a stage of preoccupation-anticipation (PFC, ACC, insula).