Lecture 38: Pain and touch

Question 1

What are the different primary afferent neurons?

Answer 1

Aβ - fibre (touch)
Aδ - fibre (epicritic pain
C - fibre (protopathiC pain)

Question 2

What is the spinothalamic tract?

Answer 2

(also known as anterolateral system or the ventrolateral system) is a sensory pathway from the skin to the thalamus.

TRAVELS FROM SPINE TO THALAMUS

RELAYS INFORMATION ABOUT PAIN AND TEMPERATURE

Question 3

What regions of the brain are important the
sensory-discriminative, affective-motivaitonal and
the cognitive-evaluative aspects of pain?

Answer 3

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Question 4

How do these processes mediate chronic pain?
– NMDA receptor-­‐mediated
changes in synaptic efficiency
– Phenotypical changes in nocicep6ve neurons
– Morphological changes in neural connec6vity

Answer 4

– NMDA receptor-­‐mediated
changes in synaptic efficiency
– Phenotypical changes in nocicep6ve neurons
– Morphological changes in neural connec6vity

Question 5

***What is the gate theory of pain?

Answer 5

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Question 6

***How does placebo analgesia work?

Answer 6

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