Peter Gilgan Center for Research & Learning, Toronto, ON

Our approach is a multidisciplinary one involving electrophysiology, calcium imaging, and optogenetics together with computational simulations and rigorous mathematical analysis.
Our view is that the pain system, like other parts of the nervous system, is complex because it is nonlinear. Nonlinearities occur when different parts of a system (e.g. different ions channels within a neuron, or different neurons within a network) cooperate, compete, or interfere with one another. Nonlinearities cause the principle of superposition to fail, which means the system is not the sum of its parts. To grapple with the nonlinear features of pain processing, we exploit the tools and concepts of nonlinear dynamics. Our hope is that this sort of computational approach will deepen our theoretical understanding of pain processing under normal and pathological conditions.