Brain - the master of the pain and the great deceiver

A Life / by admin / December 19, 2019

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Where does the pain

Pain - is evolutionarily beneficial mechanism. She reports on injuries that need attention: "The problem! Do something, and then we istechom blood. "

Mechanism to be effective, the pain should correctly display the nature of the injuries, but it is not always. The same damage can be felt in different ways, and sometimes do not feel. For example, carried away by some business, you may not notice that the injury. Nerves instantly transmit a signal of damage, and you notice a cut, only when you see blood.

At the same time people may feel non-existent damage. For example, in his book "The brain tells"Professor of Neurophysiology Vilayanur S. Ramachandran describes his patient, who felt pain in the amputated hands clenched fist. When using a system of mirrors the patient saw the reflection of the other hand and opened his fist, phantom pain disappeared.

There is another good exampleFisher JP, Hassan DT, O'Connor N. Minerva. BMJ. 1995 Jan 7; 310 (70).: Construction of the shoe stuck long nail. Any movement of the nail causes severe pain, and to pull it out, the builder gave sedative. When the nail removed and stripped of shoes, it turned out that the foot is not damaged. The nail went through his fingers without touching the skin. The poor man was healed immediately.

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This and many other cases show that the brain is far from objectivity. Yes, our feelings are strongly dependent on the receptors, but not only from them. Receptors can be subjective: they honestly send data on what happened in the tissues, and this is how it interprets the brain - is quite another matter.

We will look at what mechanisms are responsible for the perception of pain and errors in interpretation as it arises and travels along the nerve cells of the body.

Like pain is born in the brain

Signals are transmitted from the receptors in the spinal cord

In his article,Ask a Neuroscientist: The Physiology of BDSM (Part 1/2) - How Pain Moves to the Brain on pain neurobiologist Solenzol Hermes (Hermes Solenzol) described how the pain gets from the receptors to the brain.

Nociceptors - nociceptors - composed of billions of nerve fibers of different types. Larger A-fibers transmit fast pain, such as needlestick. Small C fibers bit late and transmit signals of a slower and prolonged pain. Together these receptors mediate the sensitivity of the skin, muscles, joints, deep tissue and internal organs.

Body neurons favoring nerve fibers of any kind, are in the spinal ganglia - ganglia, located on the sides of the spinal cord. Through them information about the damage falls into the dorsal root of the spinal cord. Thus one can suppress other signal.

For example, continuous dull ache delivered by slow Type C fiber can be suppressed rapid prick or pinch, which is transmitted fast A fiber. You simply cease to feel a dull pain, although its source is not going anywhere.

For this reason, we instinctively rubbed his sore point: Touch and other pressing transmit tactile sensations, which reduce the feeling of pain.

The signals are processed in the brain

From the spinal cord signal reaches the brain: through the brainstem to the thalamus - a central processing all the sensory information. In various thalamic nuclei processed image data, sound, tactile sensations.

From the thalamus the signal goes to the three areas of the brain:

Somatosensory cortex. This structure sets from which part of the body came a signal of pain.
It shares an island or islet. It is due to the island, we understand how much pain, and feel about it any emotions. In addition, the island plays a role in the formation of other emotions: sadness, joy, anger, disgust, empathy and even love. Perhaps that is why emotions strongly influence the perception of pain. It is proved that falling in love lowers it when people hold hands, the pain subsidesThe role of touch in regulating inter-partner physiological coupling during empathy for pain.
A front waist cortex (ACC). This structure of the brain is associated with Knowledge, the elimination of errors and conflicts, attention and motivation. Due to her an incentive to do something with the pain (or do nothing). PEP decides what action we will take, based on the current state of affairs.

As you can see, there is no hot line through which a signal of damage to the brain reached. It goes through many complex and multifunctional structure that can easily be dulled or, conversely, to turn on the full. Signal processing brain determines its significance, based on the situation, previous experience, the impact of culture, your knowledge and sensory information: the sound, the smell, the picture.

Pain - this is not an objective sense as a free interpretation of the brain. Pain is born in it.

Can we manage the pain? Not directly. Do not forget that your "I" - is also a product of the brain, one of his processes. So you control your brain any more than the movement of the clock controls the mechanism of these watches.

But we can do something to dull the sensation of pain, through the management of their emotions and the creation of a suitable environment.

How to ease the pain

Create a comfortable environment

We describe only the ascending path of pain - from the periphery to the brain, but there are also reverse, the downward path. The brain is not only determines how you will feel the pain, but also can affectPain: The Science and Culture of Why We Hurt the sensitivity of nerves to lower it or raise.

When you are nervous, the brain believes that the situation is dangerous. So he makes the peripheral nerves to pass him more information. As a result, you feel the pain even more acutely from minor stimuli.

But the brain can do the opposite: if you are calm and are in safety, peripheral nerves can perceive less incentive, and you will feel less pain. It is found more during the Second World War: the soldiers feltRelationship of significance of wound to pain experienced much less pain than they should have at their injuries, because they were happy to be safe rather than on the battlefield.

Believe in something that is not going to hurt

Think positive events. People with rapid emotional recovery really feelEmotional regulation and acute pain perception in women less pain.

Change tactile sensations

Receptors in the skin are betraying not only the signals of pain, but other sensations: touch, pressure, cold, heat. Therefore, many practices like grinding, warming or cooling, or pulling bandages sticking teips help to relieve the pain, without affecting on its cause.

Try changing the tactile sensation in the painful area, and the pain will also change.

Do not dramatize

Because pain - personal experience, some people in order to give it to the intensity of the resort to artistic descriptions and overly dramatize: "Pain glares at me with red-hot needles", "Pain blazing fire. "

Such phrases will cause sympathy from other people, but they can turn against the narrator himself. Having described the pain of colorful phrases, you convince your brain that the way it is, and you start to feel your fantasies.

Fight fear through knowledge

Uncertainty causes fear and anxiety, and they increase the perception of pain. If you suffer from the pain of an unknown nature, immediately go to the doctor and find out from him the maximum of their illness.

If he did not give enough information, go to another doctor or look for scientific papers on the subject. Do everything to calm down and feel that you generally okay. provedA randomized controlled trial of an educational intervention to prevent the chronic pain of whiplash associated disorders following rear-end motor vehicle collisions.That knowledge of the cause of the pain helps it reduce.

Do not suffer the pain: this can end badly

The point is not even that you can run for a dangerous disease. Nerve receptors get used to the pain and become more susceptible. Do not lead to structural changes in the neurons, to do everything to get rid of the pain until it turned into a chronic.