Title : Pain control theories
Abstract:
Neuroscientists Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall put forth a revolutionary new theory of pain in the 1960s. Researchers at the time were having trouble explaining the phenomenon. While some asserted that the pain signals are delivered by the intensive firing of non-specific nerve fibers, others contended that specialized nerve fibers carry pain signals up into the brain. The way that we feel pain is really complicated. Our ideas and feelings are just two of the many things that affect how we experience pain. The Gate Control Theory of Pain explains how painful sensations can be suppressed and overridden by non-painful ones. Primary afferent fibers are stimulated by a painful, nociceptive input, which is then carried to the brain by transmission cells. Pain perception increases when the transmission cells become more active. Stress and tension, mental factors, and lack of activity are the three main ways in which the gates to pain can be made more open, so that the pain feels more intense while factors such as relaxation, contentment, mental factors, activity, and other physical factors close the gate. Another theory of pain is the Labeled Line Theory of Pain: The somatosensory cortex receives a signal from the receptor as soon as pain is triggered, and the region of the cortex that the signal is sent to affects the modality of the next perception. Other pain theories include Intensity Pain Theory and Pattern Theory of Pain which defines pain as a feeling that happens when a stimulus is stronger than usual, not as a particular sensory experience and suggests that in addition to pain, other sensations may be detected by the same nerves consecutively.
Keywords: Pattern Theory of Pain, Intensity Pain Theory, Labeled Line Theory of Pain, The Gate Control Theory of Pain.
