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' pain receptor ') is a sensory neuron that responds to damaging or potentially damaging stimuli by sending "possible threat" signals [1] [2] [3] to the spinal cord and the brain. The brain creates the sensation of pain to direct attention to the body part, so the threat can be mitigated; this process is called nociception.
Parabrachial checks if the pain is being received in normal temperatures and if the gustatory system is active; if both are so the pain is assumed to be due to poison. Ao fibers synapse on laminae 1 and 5 while Ab synapses on 1, 3, 5, and C. C fibers exclusively synapse on lamina 2.
The brain determines which stimuli are profitable to ignore over time. Thus, the brain controls the perception of pain quite directly, and can be "trained" to turn off forms of pain that are not "useful". This understanding led Melzack to assert that pain is in the brain. [citation needed]
Activity in many parts of the brain is associated with pain perception. Some of the known parts for the ascending pathway include the thalamus, hypothalamus, midbrain, lentiform nucleus, somatosensory cortices, insular, prefrontal, anterior and parietal cingulum. [2] Then, there are also the descending pathways for the modulation of pain sensation.
This research demonstrated how the perception of pain relies on visual input. The use of fMRI to study brain activity confirms the link between visual perception and pain perception. It has been found that the brain regions that convey the perception of pain are the same regions that encode the size of visual inputs. [21]
The perception of pain that goes in to pain tolerance has two major components. First is the biological component—the headache or skin prickling that activates pain receptors. Second is the brain’s perception of pain—how much focus is spent paying attention to or ignoring the pain. [2]
Lesion of the insula is associated with dramatic loss of pain perception and isolated insular infarction can lead to contralateral elimination of pinprick perception. [28] Further, the insula is where a person imagines pain when looking at images of painful events while thinking about their happening to one's own body. [29]
Nociceptors respond to potentially damaging stimuli by sending signals to the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain. [16] They are found in internal organs, as well as on the surface of the body. Nociceptors detect different kinds of damaging stimuli or actual damage.