NEUR30003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Thalamus, Capsaicin, Posterior Column
13 Aug 2020
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Document Summary
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage . Sensory-discriminative aspects: location, intensity, duration of pain. Motivational-affective dimension: unpleasant feeling associated with pain. Stimuli that produce pain are likely to damage tissue. Nociception: neural process of encoding noxious (painful) stimuli. Involves activation of cells throughout the entire nervous system. Nociceptors are cells that are physiologically activated by noxious stimuli. We don"t know it"s painful until it reaches the cerebrum and it is encoded. Pain signalling and nociception: site of injury (eg. stub your toe) Peripheral nociceptors (primary afferent neurons) that innervate that tissue are activated. Carried to spinal cord: synapse at spinal cord at an interneuron, carried up to brainstem for modulation, ascending pathways transmit info towards cerebrum. Nociceptors: peripheral neurons transduce noxious stimuli into electrical potentials and take information to the cns. Descending modulation of pain signalling can suppress pain.
