GE CLST 73A Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Excitotoxicity, Drug Delivery, Electrodermal Activity

• School: UCLA
• Department: General Education Clusters
• Course: GE CLST 73A
• Professor: Chandler, S.H.

Document Summary

We think we know what pain is. Pain is an ancient evolutionary self-protective phenomenon with well-defined mechanisms in the nervous system. A string to the brain that activates a mind response. Foot touches the fire, but the brain says ouch . How the pain protective response works - receptors, fibers, pathways. Warns the organism of potential harm, internal or external. Fast and slow fibers - specific pathways to the brain of myelinated/unmyelinated fibers. Specific pain receptors identified on the skin. Pain is easy to identify and calibrate. 1) specific receptors and fibers transmit pain, touch, etc. 2) one-way pathways to spinal cord and brain. 3) one-to-one equivalence of stimulus and response. 4) adaptation: progressive reduction of response to a maintained stimulus. 1) touch or innocuous stimuli may cause pain. 2) pain from one site may be referred elsewhere in body. 3) heightened or decreased perceptions of same stimulus. Gemeingefuhl/cenesthesis: organism"s ability to perceive and interpret its own internal sensations.