Keeping in check painful synapses in central amygdala.

Glutamatergic projections from the parabrachial nucleus to the central amygdala are implicated in pain transmission. In this issue of Neuron, Delaney et al. identify a new form of adrenergic modulation at these synapses, demonstrating that noradrenaline-induced suppression of glutamate release is mediated by a decrease in the number of sites of synaptic transmission without changes in probability of release.