Quote:
Originally posted by nayeem007
Previously, the doctors they thought that only the brain was responsible for feeling of pain. It is now we have come to know that there are certain receptors in the skin, called as ‘pain receptors’, which are also responsible of feeling of pain.
|
This statement leaves me dumbfounded, coming from a medical doctor. The brain can only perceive pain because it receives and processes nerve signals from other parts of the body. The specific _identification_ of the pain receptors in the skin which generate those signals may be a recent discovery, but obviously undamaged skin is sensitive to pain which we can feel ONLY BECAUSE the signals travel to the brain. If pain receptors are responsible for pain then can we feel it _independent_ of the brain? What the good doctor is saying, if true, is that pain receptors alone can cause us to experience pain. That is impossible since only the brain can process nerve signals. Badly burnt skin has damaged pain receptors and cause us to lose feeling, but the same is true of neurological damage - in other words you can have healthy skin with intact pain receptors but if specific parts of the brain are damaged you will feel no pain at all. The brain is central. - mwrkhan
Edited on, April 2, 2005, 1:39 AM GMT, by mwrkhan.