Data Measured On The Control Condition Essay

Chronic pain has four mechanisms. Nociception is a neural signal of threatened or damaged tissue, and is the classical pain pathway. Central pain states are thought to be caused by abnormal activity in neurons in the afferent pathway. The mechanism for this is not completely understood, and a person may perceive pain where there is no tissue damage. Behavioral pain is communicated by a

Gate control theory was first described in 1965 by Melzack and Wall. (Gate Control Theory. 2012). The gate control theory recognizes that stimuli other than pain pass through the same gate. (DeWit, S., Stromberg, H., & Dallred, C. 2017, p.124). The gate control theory states that when the gate is open, pain sensation is allowed through; when the gate is closed, pain is blocked. (DeWit, S., Stromberg, H., & Dallred, C. 2017, p.141). The theory relates to nursing practice in several ways: two type of nerve fibers – small-diameter and large-diameter – carry pain stimuli, activity in small-diameter nerve fibers open the gate, and activity in large-diameter closes it, increase in anxiety open the gate, and decrease in anxiety closes it. Fear that pain will not be controlled may increase pain intensity, and knowing pain is being controlled reduces pain. (DeWit, S., Stromberg, H., & Dallred, C. 2017, p.124). Pain is a “neuromatrix” where pain is a multidimensional experience, which stimuli are influenced by experience, cultural learning, and

To most people, pain is a nuisance. But to others, pain controls their life. The feeling discomforts us in ways that can sometimes seem almost imaginable. These feelings can lead to many different side effects if not dealt with or diagnosed. These effects can include depression, anxiety, and incredible amounts of stress. The truth about pain is that it is vital to our existence. Without the nervous system responding to pain, we would have no idea if we were touching a hot stove, being stuck by a porcupine's needles, or something else that could leave a lasting effect upon our bodies without us even knowing anything about it. This warning system helps to alert us when there is

Pain perception can be less than might be expected from the extent of a physical injury. This was proven by a scientist called Susana Bantick, Oxford University, and colleagues who carried out a study on the influence of attention distracting pain processing (Bantick et al, 2002). During the experiment, brain processing was measured by measuring brain activity using fMRI. Participants rated pain from 1-10 when noxious heat stimulus was applied to their hand in the scanner. She then followed the same process but gave them a task which required cognitive processing; reducing the amount of focused attention on pain. Bantick, therefore, showed attention distraction can reduce the amount of pain perceived by the individual, also pain processing to the brain was reduced. This provides vital evidence that pain perception does not just depend on the injury alone.

of nature or just the sight of it, to let the subject forget about his/her suffering.

After reading these papers I think they are both good lenses to understand his topic of how pain originates in the brain. The first provides a more traditional science approach to brains relationship with chronic pain. Although it does not give a definitive answer to how the brain causes CRPS, or complex regional pain syndrome, it presents some morphological proof. This experiment proceeded as follows, Mackey received 15 patients with right handed upper extremity CRPS and then 15 control patents with the same age. The severity of the disease for each of the patients was assessed and then the patients were scanned using a 3.0 Tesla MRI machine using a 3D I-FSGR sequence to produce high-resolution T1- weighted anatomic images. These images were used to find the volumes of grey brain matter and reach some interesting points. Most importantly I think is that morphologic abnormalities that were discovered in the left posterior hippocampus and left

Studies \cite{RANGER2014519,ranger2013multidimensional,BARTOCCI2006109,slater2008well} have shown that there is an association between changes in cerebral oxygenation and pain. The most popular methods to measure the cerebral oxygenation changes are Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). fMRI is a safe method for measuring the brain hemodynamic activity. It produces an activation map that shows which parts of the brain get activated during an emotional event such as pain. NIRS is similar to fMRI but it’s less invasive and more suitable for bedside monitoring. It measures, using small probes attached to the head, subtle changes in the concentration of

“Medications, brain surgery, problems in the brain, confusion, and nerve damage from trauma or chronic diseases such as diabetes can change the interpretation of pain without changing awareness of the sensation. For example, persons may feel sensation, but it does not bother them” (Kopec, 2006)

In this article by William Cheshire, he informs the audience of how the brain reacts during pain and how pain is then assessed. Researchers were able to identify a consistent neurologic signature that was specific to heat-induced pain. Areas of the brain that lit up included the thalamus, the posterior and anterior insulate, the secondary somatosensory cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the periaqueductal grey. The researchers called this anatomical profile a “neurologic signature of physical pain.” Although this study was successful, the study examined only one type of pain. Most clinical pain syndromes are far more complex, perceptually and physiologically, especially in cases of chronic pain, which involves sensitization of pain

A group of medical researchers from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California want to determine whether pain can be handled through specific pain management methods. Specifically, two mental methods which are: focusing attention externally, and reappraising pain. These two methods involve different pathways within the brain. They used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to aid them in the study. They put the lab subjects in chronic pain under two separate conditions. In the first trial, one of the participants used the concept of “external focus of attention” to alleviate the pain. Basically, the “external focus of attention” is where an individual focuses upon something, an object, rather than the pain itself. The results from the MRI showed responses in the cortical areas.

These results suggest that RVPFC probably regulates the impact of social pain by adjusting itself. These reactions and process of ACC and RVPFC to the social distress are very similar to their responses to physical pain, thus a connection between brain responses to social pain and physical pain is shown and supported by these

The basic PENS therapy consisted of the placement of 10, 32 gauge stainless steel acupuncture-like needle probes into the soft tissue and/or muscle in the symptomatic leg to a depth of 2-4 cm probes were connected to 5 bipolar leads (with each lead connected to one positive and one negative probe) from a low-output electrical generator and stimulated at 4 Hz (Ghoname et al., 1999). Although the precise mechanism of PENS-induced analgesia is not known, it has been speculated that both alterations in neural modulation produced by electrical stimulation, as well as an increase in endogenous morphine like substances within the central nervous system (CNS) contribute to PENS-induced analgesia (Han et al. 1991). PENS therapy produces short - term

A control condition is necessary to include when testing any hypothesis because you have to isolate the variable being tested in order to ensure that no other factors could alter the results. In this case, the hypothesis is that talking on a cell phone impairs peoples driving skills. A control condition or group is crucial because it allows for comparison to the experimental condition. The cell phone is the independent variable in this experiment, thus the skill of the driver is the dependent variable. Both groups should be picked at random so that there aren't an abundance of “bad drivers” in one of the groups. All other variables must be controlled as best as possible in order to maintain balanced, unbiased, and accurate data. Overall, the

Pain is something that connects all of us. From birth to death we can identify with each other the idea and arguably the perception of it. We all know we experience it, but what is more important is how we all perceive it. It is known that there are people out there with a ‘high’ pain tolerance and there are also ones out there with a ‘low’ pain tolerance, but what is different between them? We also know that pain is an objective response to certain stimuli, there are neurons that sense and feel pain and there are nerve impulses that send these “painful” messages to the brain. What we don’t know is where the pain

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.