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This "open gate" allows for transmission cells to be excited, and thus pain to be sensed. The gate control theory of pain describes how non-painful sensations can override and reduce painful sensations. A painful, nociceptive stimulus stimulates primary afferent fibers and travels to the brain via transmission cells.
William Kenneth Livingston advanced a summation theory in 1943, proposing that high intensity signals, arriving at the spinal cord from damage to nerve or tissue, set up a reverberating, self-exciting loop of activity in a pool of interneurons, and once a threshold of activity is crossed, these interneurons then activate "transmission" cells ...
Another type of pain, known as neuropathic pain, is caused by a direct problem or disease that affects the nerves in the central nervous system. [11] The sensory pathways the WDR neurons can play a role in. A subset of this neuropathic pain, known as chronic neuropathic pain, is characterized by its long lasting and high pain intensity.
Gate control theory of pain. A major hypothesis in the theory of pain perception is the gate control theory of pain, proposed by Wall and Melzack in 1965. The theory predicts that the activation of central pain inhibitory neurons by non-pain sensing neurons prevents the transmission of non-harmful stimuli to pain centers in the brain.
Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries. [4] [5] It is a major symptom in many medical conditions, and can interfere with a person's quality of life and general functioning. [6]
' pain receptor ') is a sensory neuron that responds to damaging or potentially damaging stimuli by sending "possible threat" signals [1] [2] [3] to the spinal cord and the brain. The brain creates the sensation of pain to direct attention to the body part, so the threat can be mitigated; this process is called nociception.
Its connections project extensively over the brain from the cerebral cortex down into the spinal cord. Its function is unknown, though several potential functions related to "limbic–motor integration" have been proposed, such as controlling visceral activity and pain; gating sensory input and synchronizing cortical and subcortical brain rhythms.
Prolonged pain, on the other hand, such as chronic back pain, is transmitted by the "medial" system, whose neurons pass through the central core of the brain stem. In 1974, Melzack co-founded the first pain clinic in Canada at the Montreal General Hospital with Dr. Joseph Stratford (then Chief of Neurosurgery at the hospital and who was the ...