Lecture 4: Part 2 Flashcards
What’s another name for pain processing?
Nociceptive processing
Signal travels ______ in fine touch, and ______ in pain.
fast, slow
What is hapsis?
(fine touch and pressure) - fast and slow
What is proprioception?
(bodily awareness) - rapid
Touch sensory pathways:
Afferent: transmit information from the periphery to the brain via the SC
Motor pathways
Efferent: transmit information from the brain to the periphery via the SC
What is the dorsal column–medial lemniscus pathway?
Sensory pathway of the central nervous system that conveys sensations of fine touch, vibration, two-point discrimination, and proprioception (position) from the skin and joints.
Dorsal is _______ while ventral is ______.
sensory, motor
What happens to the somatosensory cortex when a body part gets injured?
Over time the cortex will expand the importance of another body part
Compare and contrast immediate vs chronic pain.
- A feeling resulting from injury or a feeling that injury has occurred
- Linked to the healing process, can extend beyond the healing process
- Can be studied relatively easily, private experience; difficult to study objectively
Comorbidity of Canadians experiencing chronic pain…
50% Depression
35% Suicidal Ideation
73% it interferes with their normal work
What cortical areas receive inputs regarding nociceptive information? (3)
- Anterior cingulate
- Prefrontal cortex
- Insula
What are differences in pain explained by? (3)
differences in the activity of the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and somatosensory cortex
Define hyperalgesia.
something that started as painful is now even more painful. Imagine the curve shifting left on the stimulus intensity vs pain intensity plot
Define allodynia.
Something that isn’t painful, but after injury becomes painful.
Define spontaneous pain.
if you’ve been in pain without a clear stimulus causing it
Why does rubbing the area in pain help?
Transmission of touch info modulates/inhibits transmission of nociceptive information
What brain regions contribute to the modulation of pain?
periaqueductal gray (PAG) and rostroventral medulla (RVM)
Pain info is travelling up which tract?
ascending spinothalamic
How does pharmacology help in pain reduction?
Inhibitory interneurons near the ascending spinothalamic tract express u-opioid receptors, opioids bind to these receptors and turn them off.
Where does voluntary action originate?
primary motor cortex of the front lobe
Where do motor neuron axons form tracts in the brain?
In the midbrain and medulla (pyramid) and synapse with lower motor neurons in spinal cord.
In motor action the prefrontal cortex is responsible for ______ while the premotor cortex is responsible for ________
planning, sequence organization
What is the primary motor cortex responsible for?
movement production, contains homunculus (parallel representation to the somatosensory homunculus)
