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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.
Neuropathic pain is pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system. [2] [3] Neuropathic pain may be associated with abnormal sensations called dysesthesia or pain from normally non-painful stimuli . It may have continuous and/or episodic components. The latter resemble stabbings or electric shocks.
Marginal nucleus of the spinal cord are the only unsuppressible pain signals. The parabrachial area integrates taste and pain info, then relays it. 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.
Area S2 processes light touch, pain, visceral sensation, and tactile attention. S1 processes the remaining info (crude touch, pain, temperature). [13] [14] [15] BA7 integrates visual and proprioceptive info to locate objects in space. [16] [17] The insular cortex (insula) plays a role in the sense of bodily-ownership, bodily self-awareness, and ...
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.
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] Those with irritable bowel syndrome have abnormal processing of visceral pain in the insular cortex related to dysfunctional inhibition of pain within the brain. [30]
"Touch" is an objective sensation, but "pain" is an individualized sensation which varies among different people and is conditioned by memory and emotion. Anatomical differences between the pathways for touch-position perception and pain-temperature sensation help explain why pain, especially chronic pain, is difficult to manage.
Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. [3] Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries.