How do we perceive pain?
- Pain is unique to each of us. Our perceptions of pain result from a series of messages that alert us to injury, warning us of danger or to withdraw from danger! How we interpret these messages depends on many different factors.
- Pain involves a complex series of messages that travel along the nerves connecting the site of injury and various parts of the nervous system.
- Stimulation of certain mechanisms within the nervous system leads to transmission of messages from the injured part, along the nerves, passing from one neuron to the other.
- At the junction of the nerves, a number of chemical reactions take place, to allow messages to be transmitted,
- Messages are transmitted from the periphery to the spinal cord, and to various parts of the brain, where we interpret the sensations.
