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Terminology continued

20/7/2015

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In the last blog post, I introduced a few pain terms and basic neuroanatomy. Here are a few more:

1)      Suffering: this refers to a person’s reaction to his pain perception. How and how much a person suffers is influenced by several factors such as his thoughts and beliefs, past pain experiences, how harmful he thinks the injury may be or may become, what kind of attention is drawn to the injury. This is why suffering may not be proportional to the nociception. Remember Bethany Hamilton (May 25, 2015 Blog post).

2)      Pain behaviour is how a person’s suffering is communicated to others. This may be done through audible or visible actions. This is the pain information that is related, narrated or demonstrated by the person.

3)      Transduction: this happens in the peripheral tissues when noxious stimuli are converted into electrical activity in the sensory nerve endings.

4)      Sensory nerve endings: these are the ends of peripheral nerves; dendrites which lie far from the cell bodies of nerves.

5)      Conduction:  this is when the neuron carries the noxious information into the central nervous system.

6)      Transmission: this is when nociceptive information is conveyed from one neuron to another through junctions called synapses. The primary afferent neuron carries the information to the spinal cord, where it synapses with a second-order neuron, which then carries the information on to the higher centres. This input or information is then routed to different areas of the brain (thalamus, cortex, limbic system)

7)      Synapse: this is a junction across which a nerve impulse is passed from an axon terminal to another neuron, muscle cell, or gland cell.

8)      Perception: the recognition and interpretation of pain by the brain. This is the beginning of suffering and pain behaviour, and it varies greatly between people. 

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Terminology

8/7/2015

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I thought I’d do something lighter and less convoluted over the summer before going on to “Why it Still Hurts”

Here are a few pain terms and basic neuroanatomy that you might encounter:

1)      Nociception: this is the noxious stimulus which originates from the sensory receptor. Nociception is carried to the Central Nervous System by the primary afferent neuron.

2)      Sensory receptors: these are at the ends of sensory nerves. They receive physical or chemical stimuli.

3)      Central Nervous System (CNS): this is made of the brain and spinal cord. Sensory impulses are transmitted to it and motor impulses pass out from it. It coordinates the activity of the entire nervous system. It is able to modulate noxious stimulation. This is important as it is this modulation which increases or decreases the perception of pain.

4)      Primary afferent neuron: this is a nerve that transmits impulses from receptors to the central nervous system. Efferent neurons transmit signals from the CNS.







































5)     
Axon: this is a nerve fibre. A bundle of many axons form a nerve. This can be sensory or motor.

6)      A neuron is a nerve cell.

7)      Pain: this is the sensation perceived in the cortex resulting from incoming nociceptive input.

8)      Cortex: This is the cerebral cortex, which is the brain’s outer layer of nerve tissue in humans. The cerebral cortex is gray matter. This is where most sensory information is routed to (via the thalamus).


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    Author

    Sharon is a physiotherapist focusing her treatment on TMDs and related orofacial and craniofacial pain.

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