Research in the Martin Lab

The Martin Pain Lab investigates how pain is shaped by the brain, the body, and social experience — with the ultimate goal of improving how pain is understood, measured, and treated in humans and animals. To bridge the translational gap between laboratory findings and real-world pain experiences, the lab uses complementary animal models and human studies, combined with biological sampling and advanced neural circuit analyses.

How Chronic Pain Changes the Brain

Chronic pain is more than persistent sensation — it fundamentally alters neural circuits that process emotion, cognition, and perception.
The Martin Lab studies how chronic pain reshapes “top-down” modulatory pathways that influence both the sensory experience of pain and affective state, and how these changes affect behaviour. This work uses molecular, electrophysiological, and behavioural approaches to identify circuits that may be targets for future therapies.

Representative publications:

Baumbach, J. L. et al. (2025) — History of pain increases emotional and sensory responses to threat via TRPA1 signaling, revealing how past injury reshapes stress and pain pathways.
Baumbach, J. L. et al. (2024) — Predator odor exposure causes long-lasting behavioural changes in mice through kappa opioid receptor mechanisms, highlighting environmental modulation of pain and affect.

Social Context and Pain: A Two-Way Interaction

Social settings and relationships powerfully shape pain sensitivity and recovery. The lab is revealing how social factors influence pain perception, how pain alters social behaviour, and how neural circuits mediate these effects in both animal models and humans.

Key insights include:

Pain operates as a social signal that can influence group behaviour.
Stress hormones can disrupt the communication of pain between individuals, but blocking stress pathways may enhance social bonding.

Representative publications:

Martin, L. J. et al. (2022) — Mouse models of autism show altered pain expression and emotional contagion, linking social cognition and nociceptive behaviour.
Cho, C., Deol, H. K., & Martin, L. J. (2021) — A review on bridging biological, psychological, and social dimensions in pain research.

Learning, Expectation, and Pain Modulation

Pain is shaped by prior experience, expectations, and cognitive context. The lab studies how learning mechanisms — such as memory of pain, prediction of threat, and conditioned responses — influence pain outcomes and therapeutic responses.

This research has implications for understanding why placebo effects occur, why some individuals develop chronic pain after injury, and how cognitive processes can amplify or reduce pain.

Representative publications:

Karimi, S. A. et al. (2024) — Evaluation of preclinical pain models and their implications for translational research, underscoring the importance of cognitive factors.
Schiller, D. et al. (2024) — The human affectome: integrating affective processes with pain and emotion research.

Sex, Strain, and Biological Determinants of Pain

Biological differences — including sex and genetic background — influence both pain sensitivity and responses to analgesics. Through carefully controlled animal studies, the lab is exploring these differences to better tailor pain treatments for diverse populations.

Representative publications:

Boorman, D. C. et al. (2025) — Sex and strain differences in morphine responses in mice, advancing understanding of biological variability in pain treatment.

Translational Impact and Future Directions

The Martin Lab’s research advances pain science in multiple ways:

Bridging basic and clinical pain research by using models that reflect real-world pain modulation.
Linking neural circuits with behaviour to uncover mechanisms underlying chronic pain and social influences.
Informing novel therapeutic targets by identifying biological pathways involved in pain sensitization, social communication of pain, and cognitive modulation.

This integrative approach aims to transform how pain is understood across species, ultimately improving interventions for patients living with chronic pain.