Slide 9 of 9
Notes:
Exogenous opiates (internal) reduce pain reactivity: Brain produces several endorphins aka enkaphalins
Naloxone reverses opiate activity:naloxone reversibility is taken as an indication of opiate involvement
You can produce anesthetic effects, in severe cases of pain, by electrically stimulating the periaqueductal gray matter (recall in the tegmentum) and parts of the medulla {may implant electrodes there that stimulate the body’s natural pain killers, opiates and enkaphalins}
Trauma or lesion to the primary somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe can lead to a loss of pain perception.
The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the aversiveness of pain; damage in this limbic system structure and you don’t care or are not bothered by the pain (but you do feel it).
