Pain & Nociception Overview

Question 1

Pain is an extraordinarily complex sensory modality, both _____ and _____?

Answer 1

structurally and functionally

Question 2

What are the mechanisms and pathways widespread and redundant?

Answer 2

Due to the importance of warning an organism about the dangerous circumstance

Question 3

Nociceptors that transduce noxious stimuli send afferents to where?

Answer 3

to the dorsal horn neurons in the spinal cord

Question 4

Where do axons of the second order neurons (dorsal horn neurons) ascend?

Answer 4

to the thalamic nuclei

- relay nociceptive info to higher cortical regions

Question 5

Additional pathways involving regions of the brainstem, thalamus, and the cortex mediate?

Answer 5

the affective-emotional and behavioral responses of painful stimuli

Question 6

Recruitment of descending pain-gating systems require activation of what?

Answer 6

periaqueductal grey (PAG) in the brainstem

Question 7

Descending pathways interact with local circuits in the spinal cord to regulate?

Answer 7

transmission of pain signals to higher regions

Question 8

Who are going to be the most distressed patients we see?

Answer 8

those suffering from chronic pain

Question 9

Can pain seem more destructive to the sufferer than required by physiological purposes?

Answer 9

yes

Question 10

What is the purpose of excessive effects of pain?

Answer 10

they may just be by-products of the protective benefits of the vital sensory modality