Sharpen Your Mind: Pain & Brain

Posted by Jerry Lopper Feb 1, 2007

The perception of pain, termed nociception, is essential to the survival of higher species. Children born with a rare congenital insensitivity to pain seldom survive past the age of twenty five.

The perception of pain, a reaction to physical or emotional stimulus, occurs in a complex network of the brain. Perceptions of intensity, duration, location, and type of pain occur in different areas of the brain's pain matrix.

The sensation of pain triggers feelings of distress. The distress we feel as a result of pain does not distinguish between physical or emotional causes; a broken heart or a broken arm may generate equivalent human distress.

Source: The Intellectual Devotional, David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim

Related Article: Time Magazine: Mind & Body Issue