The neuropathic pain is caused by the injury or damage on the sensory nervous system; its pathological phenomena include allodynia, hyperalgesia, and spontaneous pain. About 4–8% of people in our society are suffering from this disease. Emerging evidences from both human patients and animal models showed that maladaptive plastic changes happened along the sensory pathways, from the peripheral to central nervous system, which may be involved in the generation, development, and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Therefore knowing the mechanisms mediating the maladaptive plasticity will be helpful for the neuropathic pain treatments in the future.

We invite investigators to contribute original research as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the molecular mechanism underlying maladaptive plasticity along sensory pathways and the development of innovative strategies to treat neuropathic pain.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The molecular basis of neuronal plasticity along the sensory pathways
• The long-term changes of information coding under neuropathic pain conditions
• Maladaptive plasticity as a link between neuropathic pain (neuroimaging studies)
• The genetic basis for the individual neuropathic pain development
• The clinical treatments for neuropathic pain
• The neuropathic pain and relative emotional disorders
• Glial basis for the neuropathic pain
• Epigenetic modification and neuropathic pain