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Pain involves both sensory and affective-motivational dimensions, yet how distinct neural circuits regulate these components remains unclear. We identified the anterior nucleus of the paraventricular thalamus (PVA) as a key hub in chronic pain modulation. Chronic nociceptive stimulation enhanced activity in distinct PVAVgluT2 neuronal subpopulations, each engaged in either sensory or affective pain processing. Optogenetic activation induced mechanical hypersensitivity and aversion, while inhibition alleviated formalin-induced pain. Circuit tracing revealed segregated PVA projections to the BNST and NAc, mediating affective and sensory components, respectively. Thus, the PVA organizes pain through distinct, functionally specialized pathways. In the second part, I will present our AI-assisted platform for automated pain behavior analysis in mice, which uses a universal action space projector to extract behavioral features objectively and preserve rich video information without human labeling bias.