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Stress and chronic pain The brain is constantly receiving sensory information, not only from the tissues but also in the form of sight, hearing, smell and taste. It is also important to remember that thoughts, emotions and beliefs are nerve impulses too, which are processed by the brain and contribute to the output of neurotags. […]

The Neuromatrix approach to chronic pain Once the danger signals reach the brain they are processed by the neuromatrix. This is a term that Ronald Melzack used to describe the combination of cortical mechanisms involved in processing sensory information. Imaging studies have demonstrated that there is no single pain centre; instead multiple brain areas are […]

Central changes that contribute to chronic pain We have discussed how danger signals from nociceptors reach the dorsal horn and how they are passed on to secondary order neurones, which transmit the signals on to the brain. However there are structural changes that can happen in the nervous system that cause faulty signalling of sensory […]

Pain in the brain Nociception Nociception is a term that describes the sensation of noxious stimulation that may be interpreted as pain. Nociceptors are nerve cells that reside in the dorsal root ganglion with free nerve endings in the skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments and viscera that relay noxious input to the spinal cord. The predominant […]

What is chronic pain? It was Rene Descarte who proposed the theory of pain that has persisted for nearly 400 years. Descarte thought that there were specific pain receptors and nerve fibres that projected pain impulses to the spinal cord and on to a specific pain centre in the brain. This implicated that the experience […]