Pain

[StoneFrog]

So you know sometimes pain feels like its coming from a different area of your body why is it like that?
Like i had a bite on my stomach, yet when i touched it felt a sharp pain on my inner arm.

[Zukunftsmusik]

Sometimes, when I for example rip off a band-aid from my feet, I feel a pain in my upper-lip. :blink: Not sure if it's just imagination or what.

[ColonelCossack]

You guys have fucked up brains. Which i'm sure is where this phenomenon originates.

[xub3rn00dlex]

Revolutionary leftists have learned to tricks their bodies into thinking pain is coming from a place other than where it is. Allows us to keep going on like the energizer bunny.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

As ColonelCossak intimates, pain comes not from the extremity under consideration, but is actually the result of signal interpretation in the brain. It's weird to think about at first, but when one considers such phenomena as phantom limbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb), it makes sense.

[StoneFrog]

you see i always thought it might have something to do with how nerves signal are sent to the brain. Since for me it normally happens with something related to the skin, a bite a pimple etc..

[Nox]

Sometimes when I pop a nice, juicy zit on my chin I feel the pain in the center of my chest.

[Dogs On Acid]

As ColonelCossak intimates, pain comes not from the extremity under consideration, but is actually the result of signal interpretation in the brain. It's weird to think about at first, but when one considers such phenomena as phantom limbs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb), it makes sense.

Well, first of all a signal has to come from the nerves in the general painful affected area, which then gets back to the brain, the brain then interprets this stimuli with pain. What I don't understand is why it interprets the signal somewhere else instead.

[kitsune]

The brain has a few different maps. It has a map of the body, and a spatial orientation map of the body in relation to other objects. When the brain receives a signal from the nervous system, it interprets that signal, produces a sensation, and orients it on your body.

I remember seeing a program some months ago about this. The show focused on several people who suffered neurological damage through accident or illness that affected their brain maps and sensory interpretation. There was one woman who, if her foot was pricked with a needle, felt a feather tickle on her shoulder. Not only was the brain misinterpreting the sensory information, but also where it should be located. Another very strange case was a guy who they poked in the chest. He felt the poke, but not anywhere on his body. It felt as though it was floating in the air about three feet in front of his face.

[Luisrah]

I have also read about nerves that touch each other and because of that the electrical stimuli goes to a different nerve.
I think it actually gave an example of someone that had a problem in the stomach of something, but had pain in the shoulder.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Well, first of all a signal has to come from the nerves in the general painful affected area, which then gets back to the brain, the brain then interprets this stimuli with pain. What I don't understand is why it interprets the signal somewhere else instead.

For the same reason a webcam is only partially involved in the processing of the images it gathers. It's all very well recieving stimuli, but the brain has to interpret them and put them in a context that "makes sense".

[brigadista]

sympathetic nervous system