In the U.S., chronic pain already afflicts more people than both depression and diabetes. It can be persistent and hard to treat, and appears to be becoming a more prevalent public-health problem, which means it’s a good time to pay close attention to pain research. Two recent studies stood out to me because, taken together, they shed lights on some of the most interesting questions about pain.

The first is a Norwegian study that linked higher levels of pain tolerance to more frequent physical activity. With 10,732 participants, the study serves as great evidence for the importance of lifestyle habits in managing pain. Future research examining what’s behind this association could teach us more about the biological underpinnings of how pain is experienced—something that another study published last week broke new ground on.

A team of neurologists at the University of California, San Francisco implanted trackers into the brains of patients with chronic nerve pain to provide the most rigorous data yet on the brain activity associated with chronic pain. What they found suggests that chronic pain is a unique neurological experience compared to other types of pain. The research could open the door to new pharmacological therapies. Keep an eye on it—it’s an example of the way that clever research techniques can pave the path to important advancements.

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