PSYCH JOURNAL 10/10/2013

•How do you experience pain? Do injuries cause you intense pain or mild pain?

•Do you think your mind has a role in controlling pain? Have you ever been able to control your pain by thinking a certain way? Explain..

Skin Senses

How we feel

•Nerve endings are stimulated by contact or temperature.

•Brain processes touch in the somatosensory cortex (parietal lobe).

•Sensitivity is greater where more receptor nerves exist (faces, tongues, hands)

Our sense of touch

•Research is new, there is still a great deal of information that is not known to scientists. (ex: why people are ticklish)

•What we do know:•Four basic skin senses: touch, warmth,

cold, and pain.

Pain•Pain serves as a warning system•Pain differs from other senses – when the

stimulus producing the pain is removed, the pain continues.

•Pain can be generated as a result of sensory information or can be generated from the brain itself

Gate-Control Theory of Pain• Thoughts and feelings

can influence our reaction to pain.

• How does this work?:• Pain impulses must get

past a neurological “gate” in the spinal cord. When closed, the “gate” can block pain messages.

• Small fibers located on the “gate” are the physical “keys” that can open the “gate”.

Phantom Pain

•Person continues to feel pain after a limb (for example) is removed. The Gate-Control theory does not explain this medical phenomenon.

Neuromatrix Theory of Pain•The brain is capable of generating pain on its

own•Network of neurons in the brain gives us a

sense of our own body•When the network produces an abnormal

pattern, pain results•Memories, emotion, and expectations

influence pain•Phantom Pain – Abnormal patterns due to lack

of sensory stimulation – amputated limbs.

Phantom Pain and Mirror Therapy•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL_6O

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