Slide 7 of 9
Notes:
Pain stimuli induce species-typical escape and withdrawal responses. E.g. bear gets paw partly caught in trap, hurts and bear wants to run away and avoid those traps
Pain reception is poorly localized (as is temperature)
Q. What area in brain is damaged if have loss of pain perception?
- What area is damaged if have loss of the aversiveness of painful stimuli? I.e. The person feels pain but doesn’t bother him/her. (Imagine the people that walk on hot coals or magicians that lie on beds of sharp nails)
Phantom limbs is phenomenon that occurs after limb is amputated (or in someone born without a limb). These patients say that they feel pain (sometimes excruciating) and that their missing (phantom) limb seems to move or be in the way. The idea is that there may still be activity of sensory axons in the parietal (somatosensory cortex) that are still active even though that limb is not in existence (idea of a genetic map of our body senses before we are born).
