Lecture 21 Flashcards
Pleasure has 2 Streams
Wanting vs liking
Wanting
Wanting denotes anticipatory and motivational behaviors
-Dopamine
-ie, in the striatum and hypothalamus
Liking
Associated with consummatory and hedonic experiences
-Opioids
-ie, in the insular cortex, nucleus accumbens
Motivation-Decision Model
-There is a constant decision process in acute pain. The organism decides (subconsciously or consciously) whether it is advantageous to attend to pain, or a competing motivational state
Motivation-Decison Model: The Role of Opioids
-If the competing motivation wins out, responses to noxious stimulation, including the conscious experience of pain, are blocked
-One way this occurs is via release of endogenous opioids, with consequent activation of OFF cells leading to inhibition of nociceptive trans- mission neurons at the level of the dorsal horn
Flow or being ‘‘in the zone’’
-State of intense focus and absorption in an activity, where a person is fully immersed in the task at hand and loses track of time and their surroundings
-‘‘effortless’’ focused attention
-Happens mostly when you’re doing something you like doing + good at it (for a difficult task)
Preferred vs Non-Preferred Video Games
-Effects of video games on pain
-People usually report not enjoying these tasks (difficult)
-Ask participants to familiarize with 6 games then rate them
-Played favourite (P) and least favourite (LP)
-Added shock
-Video games induce flow –> associated with dopamine
Checkmate pain: Effects of passion for chess
-Passionate about something = part of your identity (who you are) = more profound
-Reduction of pain when taking part in game that is important for you
Favourite Music
-More important than pain
-Brain reduces the pain
Pain
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or ressembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage
-Qualia
-Subjective
Nociception
The neural process of encoding nociceptive stimuli
-Objective
Nociceptive Stimulus
An actual or potentially tissue-damaging event transduced and encoded by nociceptors
-Objective
Nociception without Pain
Soldier severly injured but able to walk far and experience 0 pain
Pain without Nociception
-Phantom limb pain; feeling pain in a limb that is absent
-Man was in a lot of pain but nail had passed between the toes and there was no tissue damage; body triggered pain response
Ronald Melzack
Pain = Multi-dynamic experience
-Pain is a combination of 3 different dimensions
-Neurosignature = certain pattern of activity in the brain
The Pain Matrix
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Insula
-affective dimension
-emotion dimension of pain
Somatosensory Cortices
-sensory dimension
-sensory dimension of pain
Primary Somatosensory Cortex Lesion
-0 sensory; all emotion
-right side brain injury
-test left side
-‘‘feel unpleasant feeling from left side of body’’ but can’t perceive it
-E.g. can’t feel pot burning in hand, but emotional part inact and feels unpleasant
Phantom Limb Pain
-60% to 80% of patients experience painful phantom sensations
-In 5% to 10% of patients, the pain is severe
-Pain appears in the first days/weeks after amputation. The pain is intermitted and tends to decrease over time
-The phantom limb is almost completely absent in young infants
-Pain is proportional to the degree of functional reorganization
-Somatotopic representation
-Stimulation in head where hand once was. Brain doesn’t know what to do = pain
You have to trick the brain into thinking that the limb is still there!
-Mirror therapy
-Multi-sensory information
-Proprioceptive + visual feedback
-Prosthesis
How can functional reorganization be prevented if the limb is missing?
Anterior Cingulate Cortex Lesion
Inability to detect errors, severe difficulty with resolving stimulus conflict in a Stroop task, emotional instability, inattention, and akinetic mutism
-‘‘The man without pain’’
-Feels a strong sensation, but could care less
Cingulotomy
A neurosurgical procedure in which tissue in the anterior cingulate region (the part of the brain associated with feeling chronic pain) is targeted and altered in a very focused manner
-Lesion to treat pain
-Pain relief decreases with time, but will eventually come back
Effect of Hypnosis
-Typically helps relieve pain in just 4 to 10 sessions. But some people benefit faster and others not at all. The goal is to teach you the technique so you can use it on your own when pain strikes
-Activity in ACC reduced
Pain ‘‘Neurosignatures’’
Try to predict how much someone is experiencing from looking at brain
-Deciding between 2 images which has more pain
Neurofeedback
A non-invasive treatment that targets brain activity. It is a type of biofeedback that provides real-time information to patients about their brain activity, allowing them to learn how to directly change this activity in ways that may lead to improved health and comfort
