• Question: how does our brain tell us we have hurt our self and how does it know where we have hurt ?

    Asked by skythekidrs2 to Hannah on 20 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Hannah Brotherton

      Hannah Brotherton answered on 20 Jun 2013:


      Hi Skythekidsrs2,
      Great question. Well..pain is how the body and brain knows something wrong or damaged within our body. Pain is involved with the way we have evolved as humans. Pain is associated with danger so our “fight or flight” behavior kicks in. This means we can either fight the danger or run away. With pain, we always run away.

      How does our brain tell us we have hurt ourselves? Our spinal cord which is connected to our body and brain is where all our nerves from the tips of our fingers to our toes merge together. When the pain reaches the spinal cord, it is then sent to the brain, where the brain can figure our where the pain is coming from.

      How does it know where we have hurt? In our brain we have exact locations that represent the sensitivity of our toes, fingers, mouths. If you google it, it is known as the Homunculus man (its a really funny picture). This little man show us how our lips are more sensitive than our head and etc. Because our brain is exactly linked to specific locations in our body, if we get hurt on our toe, the toe part of our brain will become really active – telling us we have hurt ourselves there.

      But, we have what are known as reflexes in our body….these are immediate reactions that don’t really need to involve our brain. The best example is the reflex involved in pulling your hand away from a hot stove. It is immediate. You have unconsciously pulled your hand away. This is because in our body we have these reflexes that become active as soon as they feel something too hot or too painful. This doesn’t involve the brain, but the pain afterwards definitely involves the brain, telling you to get help and take medicine.

      But sometimes, emotions can cause us to think something is more painful than it is……I panic and worry about injections because my mind is making it seem worse, but actually it isn’t too bad (Wish I could tell myself this before each injection lol)

      Han

      The spinal cord is the main route for all pain messages to the brain, where pain is then registered. Essentially there are two ways pain signals travel to the brain. The first is the fast way (motorway) the second the slow way (side roads). The former leads to sharp stabbing pain and the latter to a continuous dull and / or aching pain. Of course feelings of pain can be a mixture of these two. There are also two distinct types of pain. They are acute and chronic.

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