Pain Physiology

Question 1

What is pain

Answer 1

An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, associated with actual tissue damage or described in terms of such damage

Question 2

What are the 4 processes in the physiology of pain

Answer 2

Transduction, transmission, modulation, perception

Question 3

what is transduction

Answer 3

translation of noxious stimulus into electrical activity at the peripheral nociceptor

Question 4

What is transmission

Answer 4

propagation of pain signal as nerve impulses through the nervous system

Question 5

What is modulation

Answer 5

modification/hindering of pain transmission in the nervous system e.g. by inhibitory neurotransmitters like endogenous opioids

Question 6

What is perception

Answer 6

Conscious experience of pain. Causes physiological and behavioural responses

Question 7

What are nociceptors

Answer 7

specific primary sensory afferent neurones normally activated by intense noxious stimuli (e.g. mechanical, thermal or chemical

first order neurones that relay information to second order neurones in the CNS by chemical synaptic transmission