PSL300H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Morphine, Dermis, Thalamus
7 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
A heart attack may result in pain in the heart, whose input converges on the same ascending tract in the spinal cord as those somatic sensory inputs from the left shoulder and arm. The brain is unable to distinguish the visceral signal from the more common somatic signal, and interprets the pain as coming from the somatic region (arm) rather than the viscera (heart). Somatosensory receptors some are free nerve endings (branches at end of nerve fibre) and others are encapsulated (connective tissue that alters their functioning: merkel, meissner, and pacinian receptors. Pathways and processing that carry information from receptors into the cns: c, a , and a fibres, projections to cortex. Pain: gating gate control theory, analgesics pain killers. Somatotopic map analogous to retinotopic maps in visual cortex. Fast, slow, and referred three types of pain. There are four somatic senses: touch, temperature, proprioception, and nociception.
