Pain. That stubborn pain that just won’t go away, or that intense pain telling you that something just isn’t right. You may experience pain very differently than others around you. That’s not a bad thing, pain presentations can be unique to the person. I feel like from past experiences people try to compare their pain to yours or vice versa but really are they the same... probably not! So, what controls when, how intense, or why we feel pain when we do? The answer: THE BRAIN!
So, let’s walk through the pathway of pain in the body and follow along with the visual guide uploaded to this post as well!
The Stimulus
The body's sensory system is triggered by a stimulus. In our example, that cause of the sensation is stepping on those pesky Legos! If you haven’t stepped on a Lego, you’re lucky! Let’s just say, AVOID at all costs.
2. Alert! Sending it up!
So, the tissues that felt this Lego puncture on that super sensitive spot on the bottom of your foot send this ALERT signal all the way up to the spine to the spinal cord.
3. Hmm, should we alert the boss!
Now that the alert signal has made it to the spinal cord, the gate keeper cells, also known as the interneurons, decide if this alert signal is worthy enough to let the signal pass up to the boss at the top. The brain. If the signal passes the gate keepers, then the signal continues to travel up to the brain. If it doesn’t pass, the message sent back down says to the area that felt the Lego “chill out, it’s not that big of a deal” and no pain is felt or a reflex to pull away happens without any pain. Still at this point, NO PAIN is felt.
4. Be Bossy
The signal has now reached the boss. The brain gets alerted that “our left foot stepped on a sharp Lego, should we do something?” That bossy brain looks through all the information like the environment, history/memories, and level of danger. Once it looks through it all it decides if you need to feel pain from the Lego
5. Sending it back down!
So, the brain decided that it’s dangerous to step on Legos, we shouldn’t do this again, and need to produce a painful response. So that signal gets sent all the way back down to the foot.
6. OW!
Those tissues get that signal from the brain. How do you know that signal was sent back down?? You can feel it! PAIN is present! So, now you know how painful it is to step on a Lego!
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