How, or even if, you experience the sensation of pain is very complex and controlled by many factors, including your emotions, culture, genetics, age, gender, past experiences, and environment. The brain can produce special chemicals called endorphins and enkephalins, which prompt the gatekeepers to dial down the pain. The brain can also affect the gatekeepers.

They turn down the intensity of the pain signal, and reduce the sensation of pain. The signals sent by rubbing and touching the injured area affect the gatekeeper cells. For example, after you bump your knee, you might rub it. There are special gatekeeper cells in the spinal cord that can reduce or even block out the pain signals. Not all pain signals reach the brain though. This drawing shows the pain pathway from the point of injury on a hand to the brain. That dorsal horn will send the signal up the spinal tracts, pass the thalamus, and into the areas of the brain that control the limbic system and sensory cortex.įigure 1. Once in the brain, the pain signal is sent out to your brain's physical sensation center, emotional center, and thinking center, so you can decide what to do about it!Ī pain source on your hand will travel through the peripheral nerve which connects to the dorsal horn. These receptor cells send out their warning signals along the peripheral nerve fibers, which then carry the signal to the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, which is the major highway for relaying signals to the brain. As shown in Figure 1, the electrical signals start when special receptor cells, on the ends of peripheral nerve fibers, identify that injury or damage is taking place. Your brain knows there is pain when electrical warning signals are sent from the point of injury or disease all the way to your brain.

Without it, you'd be injuring yourself all the time without even knowing it. You don't like pain, of course, but it is very important to your survival. This is an example of how distraction can relieve pain, that uncomfortable feeling you get when you are sick or injured.

Have you ever come home from playing a rough game of sports and looked down and found a bad scrape on your knee? You realize you have no idea when or how you got hurt, because you felt nothing at the time, even though your knee may be really stinging now.

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