Like many other great findings about science, the discovery about the reasons we remember the pain was a coincidence.From these first Discoveries have conducted different research on pain and suffering as well as on pain memory and chronic pain .
In 1954, two researchers at McGill University in Canada accidentally discovered how humans learn to repeat a behavior that is beneficial for our survival. An electrode implanted in the brain of a rat had slipped from its intended place and stopped in the medial beam of the anterior brain , a group of nerve cells that reach from the depths of the brain to the prefrontal cortex.After receiving a series of desc electric argas , the rat showed great interest in the area where he had been exploring when he received the first jolt.
At first, the researchers, James Olds and Peter Milner, they thought they had found the region of the brain responsible for governing curiosity. But after conducting further research, Olds and Milner realized that what they had discovered was the center of brain reward , a system of regions associated with the delivery of a sense of pleasure in exchange for certain behaviors such as eating and mating.This discovery not only meant a revolution, but also demonstrated that animals, including humans, are prepared for learn through motivation .
But the motivation goes both ways, and so or animals like humans may also be motivated not to repeat a behavior.In this, pain is a good teacher.
Preliminary research on the nature of pain seemed a fairly simple concept The nociceptors, , which are the nerve endings free of primary sensory neurons and their specialized nerve receptors of pain , detect potential damage in the tissues at through stimuli such as the release, the increase or decrease in temperature, excess pressure or other modes of injury.This sensation translates into a electric impulse that travels to the brain where it is experienced as pain. When forming memories of these sensations we remember that we should not do certain things, such as touching a hot stove, playing with a knife or going outside without shelter in winter.That is, we remember the intent r to learn to avoid harmful and/or dangerous behaviors.
However, pain is not so simple. The experience of pain is not just physical , It also implies the presence of emotional and psychological pain, which is what is known as suffering.In this sense, other research has found that the pathways used by pain impulses excite not only the areas of the brain that experience the physical sensation, but also those related to the emotion and the cognition. Thus, pain is not only a physical experience and the association of the cognition and emotion come together in the meaning of the experience of pain.These additional characteristics of pain seem to help humans create more refined memories of a painful experience , which can help not repeat certain actions in the future.
However, the ment and cognitive is not involved only in the formation of pain memories.Research on the nervous system has found that pain memories can also be formed, which can persist even after Tissue removal: This is what happens in the so-called phantom limb phenomenon, which demonstrates how the mind can retain its ability to experience pain, even after nociceptors are no longer present.show that patients who have undergone amputation tend to experience phantom limb sensation more frequently than people who lack a limb since birth.In fact, recent studies have found that the persistence of the memory of the Pain can lead to a restructuring of the nervous system function.This change can lead to chronic pain and pain sensation in a healthy person.
Therefore, The persistence of pain memory, which can last beyond its beneficial function to learn, has led to research ways to relieve chronic pain .Research has shown that the best way to avoid pain Chronic is to prevent the formation of pain memories.
In this sense, anesthesia avoids the formation of pain memories in the conscious mind during an intentional injury such as surgery.However, the nervous system can still form its own memories of pain .they are discovering that the analgesics given to patients before surgery help prevent the chronic formation of pain memory, which decreases the development of chronic pain later.
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