The Somatic Sensory System - Pain

6 important questions on The Somatic Sensory System - Pain

With the disorder agnosia, what area of the brain is damaged and what are the symptoms?

The posterior parietal cortex area is damaged.
With agnosia comes the inability to recognize objects even though simple sensory skills seem to be normal.

What causes neglect syndrome and what are the symptoms?

Parietal cortical lesions may cause neglect syndrome. In which a part of the body or a part of the world (the entire visual field left of the center of gaze, for example) is ignored or suppressed, and its very existence is denied.

In addition to mechanosensitive receptors, what is the role of nociceptors?

The free, branching unmyelinated nerve ending that signal the body tissue is being damaged or is at risk of being damaged.
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Within the spinal cord, there is substantial mixing of information from two sources of input, resulting in referred pain. What is this phenomenon and how is its cause?

Cross-talk in the spinal cord between the nociceptor axons form the viscera and the cutaneous nociceptors because they enter the spinal cord by the same route.
Now visceral nociceptor activation is perceived as a cutaneous sensation. Classic example: angina --> pain is perceived to the upper chest wall and left arm.

What kind of effect has electrical stimulation of the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) and where is it located?

It is located in the midbrain.
Stimulation causes analgesia.

What is the effect of opioids in the brain?

Opioids bind to several types of opioid receptors in the brain, and the brain itself manufactures endogenous morphine-like substances, called endorphines.

Endorphine containing neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem prevent the passage of nociceptive signals through the dorsal horn and into higher levels of the brain.

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