Brain imaging technology is allowing us to see the potential for the mind to influence our physiology, and how this influence should not be underestimated in determining how we feel pain. A recent report published in the European Heart Journal showed that our perception of stress may be the most significant indicator of the disease. Scientists are now suggesting that our perception and the complex emotional state of the brain may in fact bias how we process and thus experience this highly protective sensation. What’s more is that this may explain how there is such variation in our pain thresholds and how some individuals can be susceptible to conditions of chronic, prolonged pain. Our ability to detect pain acts as an alarm system, protecting and guarding our bodies against potentially damaging aspects of our environment. This imperative awareness is mediated by ‘nociceptive’ nerve fibres that innervate our skin and organs, and feed into the pain processing pathways of the central nervous system. These fibres feed via the spinal cord to the brain stem, to the pain generating centres of the brain, most commonly the somatosensory cortex.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 00:54:02 +0000
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