Pain

Question 1

What did Vilayanur S. Ramachandran do for the field?

Answer 1

Pioneer in the field of phantom limb
pain, synesthesia and Capgras syndrome

Original training in visual perception
and cognition

Question 2

Why is pain a good thing?

Answer 2

The body lets you know what is wrong to protect itself

Question 3

What was wrong with Gabby Gingras and what happened to her?

Answer 3

Born without pain neurons
Lost all of her teeth, going blind, needs to wear protective clothing

Question 4

What did Paul Brand do for the field?

Answer 4

Worked in the areas of Leprosy, diabetes
Realized limb damage in both cases is
due to loss of pain sensitivity

Question 5

What happened to leprosy patients when their hands were being repaired by dr brand?

Answer 5

rats were coming in and eating their fingers off and they didn’t notice because they didn’t feel pain. he only would do the procedure on people who had pet cats

Question 6

What are the 4 kinds of sensory systems?

Answer 6

pain
temperature (non painful)
temperature (pain)
touch

Question 7

How does the body know if a sense is strong or more severe than another?

Answer 7

More action potentials means a stronger response to a strong stimulus

Question 8

What kinds of neurons do each of the sensory systems activate?

Answer 8

Pain: mechanical
Temperature (non painful): temperature (low)
Temperature (painful): temperature (high)
Touch: mechanical

Question 9

Where do all of the different sensory neurons end up?

Answer 9

sensory cortex

Question 10

How are the cortical columns for the different sensory neurons related in the brain?

Answer 10

They are all adjacent to each other (hand touch is next to hand pain, etc)

Question 11

Why are you able to tell what will be damaged based on the spinal cord?

Answer 11

Each part of the spinal cord has nerves from a section of the body that enters (input) and exits to as a response to that impulse (output)
When part of it is damaged, everything below that point will also be damaged

Question 12

What is the neuronal transmission path for pain and temperature and where does it cross over?

Answer 12

1: Sensory Neuron
2: Spinal Neuron (crosses)
3: Thalamic Neuron

Question 13

What is the neuronal transmission path for touch and where does it cross over?

Answer 13

1: Sensory neuron
2: Medulla neuron (crosses higher up)
3: Thalamic neuron

Question 14

What is “crossing over” when it comes to neuronal pathways

Answer 14

The left part of the body will be processed by the right side of the brain, it is where the neurons switch to the other half of the brain

Question 15

What is referred pain?

Answer 15

Pain felt in areas that are not hurt. Internal organs don’t have pain receptors so other parts of the body will feel pain when they are damaged
Unknown why

Question 16

What is dissociated sensory loss and what does it mean?

Answer 16

damage on one side of the spinal cord, lose all sensation from that area that is supposed to connect there

Question 17

What happens to the neuronal sensations below the vertebrate that experienced dissociated sensory loss?

Answer 17

Loss of sensation below that point on the same side, temperature and pain cross over below the affected vertebrate

Loss of pain and temperature below on the OTHER side because those neurons cross over at that point and can’t get through

Question 18

What is the gate theory of pain modulation?

Answer 18

Endogenous Opioids are released inhibiting
pain neurotransmission, can’t feel any pain even though the sensory neurons are firing

Question 19

Where are the opioids released from in the brain that act as a gate?

Answer 19

from the central gray within the midbrain

Question 20

What is the difference between first and second pain?

Answer 20

first: sharp temporary pain, myelinated neurons
second: dull, longer chronic pain

Question 21

Are pain medications targeting first or second pain?

Answer 21

Second, can’t predict when you’ll hurt yourself except for medical procedures, etc

Question 22

What is hyperalgasia?

Answer 22

enhanced pain
Increased sensitivity to stimulation
“Non painful” stimuli induce pain
“Painful” stimuli produce heightened pain
perception
Meant to protect the organism from further
damage and promote healing

Question 23

What causes hyperalgasia?

Answer 23

Sensitization of neurons involved with
the neurotransmission of pain

Sensitization of sensory neurons, spinal
neurons or CNS neurons

Question 24

What does Hebb have to do with chronic pain?

Answer 24

“Neurons that fire together wire together”
the body is so used to feeling pain that it is the expected and normal response even if nothing is wrong

Question 25

How does Ramachandran’s Mirror Box work?

Answer 25

Amputees who are experiencing phantom limb pain are able to “see” that their phantom is there and not in pain by using their intact limb to move in the mirror