PSYC 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Grey Matter, Key Light, Posterior Grey Column
30 Sep 2016
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Nociceptive sensitization: nociceptive activity is activity in neurons that gives rise to pain. The reason we care about pain is because pain hurts. There are pain fibers that are designed to pick up information about tissue damage- they give rise to the psychological pain nociceptive fibers. Aplysia is an example of nociceptive activity. When you get an injury the area around the injury gets red and if you touch the red region it hurts. The area around is now sensitize to touch that it elicits pain. Neurons that have signaled pain have been sensitized and they lie in your spinal cord: nociceptive sensitization example. Someone touches your sunburn- it doesn"t feel like a normal touch, the light touch elicits pain- its allodynic. This is because your nociceptive neurons have become sensitized in your spinal cord. If you get touched you get a stronger reflex and you report that it hurt- psychological pain.
