The central amygdala (CeA) plays pivotal roles in the link between nociception and emotion (Veinante et al, 2013).In addition to the projections to the thalamus and other cerebral nuclei, a large majority (>95%) of the nociception-specific neurons in the superficial layer of dorsal horn send axon collaterals to the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPB), suggesting the LPB receives "carbon copy" of the almost all nociceptive information from the spinal cord and the trigeminal spinal nucleus (Todd et al., 2010).This set of information is then sent to the CeA, as evidenced by many anatomical and electrophysiological studies.