PSC 126 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Congenital Insensitivity To Pain, Poena, Nociceptor
Ouch! The Problem of Pain
● Key questions
○ What is pain?
○ What is the physical basis of pain?
○ How do attitudes, emotions, relationships affect the perception of pain?
● Pain = both a biochemical and neurological transmission of an unpleasant sensation &
an emotional experience
○ Pain (Poena) = penalty
○ Pain = both biological & physical
● Pain has significance
○ Medical
■ Influences help seeking
■ Influences physiology
■ Financial costs of pain
○ Survival
■ The necessity of pain
■ The case of “Miss C”: congenital analgesia
○ Psychological and social
■ Emotions and pain
■ Chronic pain as a way of life
○ Since we experience pain, we take appropriate precautions to avoid damage
● Acute vs. chronic pain
○ Acute
■ Intense but time - limited
■ Usually result of tissue damage or disease
■ Typically disappears over time (within 6 months)
○ Chronic
■ Persist after the injury has healed
■ Sometimes in absence of any injury
■ Lasts longer than 6 months
● Measuring pain in daily life
○ The McGill Pain Questionnaire
■ Duration
■ Intensity
■ Location
■ Type
● Measuring pain in the lab
○ The cold pressor test
○ Self - statements reduce pain
● Where does the perception of pain come from?
○ Nociceptors - specialized sensory receptors in bodily tissues (hurt)
○ Most abundant in outer areas of the body (skin)
○ How a painful stimulus is relayed from the site of stimulation to the CNS
Document Summary
Pain = both a biochemical and neurological transmission of an unpleasant sensation & an emotional experience. The case of miss c : congenital analgesia. Chronic pain as a way of life. Since we experience pain, we take appropriate precautions to avoid damage. Usually result of tissue damage or disease. Typically disappears over time (within 6 months) Nociceptors - specialized sensory receptors in bodily tissues (hurt) Most abundant in outer areas of the body (skin) How a painful stimulus is relayed from the site of stimulation to the cns. Two types of nociceptors: dual pain pathways. A- delta: conduct fast, sharp, shooting pain; myelinated (acute) C - fibers: conduct slow, aching, dull pain; non- myelinated (chronic) They send info to the spinal cord, & then to the brain. These have an inhibitory effect on each other. How pain works: step in the nociception process. Pain perception differs across people according to their mood, emotional.
