Difference between feeling and pain?
- Thread starter Pithikos
- Start date
There are probably a hundred or more sensations involved in your experience. Nerves transmit information to the brain, which then sends the various data to the relevant sections for processing; then each of those sections makes a decision about the correct action to take and transmit commands to the relevant organs.
When you detect - touch, palpate, feel - an object in proximity to your surface, you are collecting sensory data about its size, shape, temperature, texture, resilience, etc. When this data is transmitted to the brain, it is received as information only: no action required... (...unless some aspect of the object - for example, if it's hot - is flagged as a potential hazard, in which case, the body is given a standard warning, and you automatically withdraw.)
If the encounter of a body part with an object is sudden and violent, however, there is a whole different set of messages sent by damaged tissue. That's pain, and it requires immediate, fairly complex, reactions, so the orders start coming back from the brain: Get Away! from the harmful thing. Press, clutch or squeeze the damaged body part (This is an automatic response to minimize blood-loss). Yell, swear, squeal or make some loud noise (both as warning to any fellow tribesmen who might be danger and to call their attention to your predicament). Remove or expel the foreign object. Seek something cold (to numb pain and retard fever.) All that may take as long as five seconds. After that, you can think rationally again and understand the process of whatever decisions you make.
When you detect - touch, palpate, feel - an object in proximity to your surface, you are collecting sensory data about its size, shape, temperature, texture, resilience, etc. When this data is transmitted to the brain, it is received as information only: no action required... (...unless some aspect of the object - for example, if it's hot - is flagged as a potential hazard, in which case, the body is given a standard warning, and you automatically withdraw.)
If the encounter of a body part with an object is sudden and violent, however, there is a whole different set of messages sent by damaged tissue. That's pain, and it requires immediate, fairly complex, reactions, so the orders start coming back from the brain: Get Away! from the harmful thing. Press, clutch or squeeze the damaged body part (This is an automatic response to minimize blood-loss). Yell, swear, squeal or make some loud noise (both as warning to any fellow tribesmen who might be danger and to call their attention to your predicament). Remove or expel the foreign object. Seek something cold (to numb pain and retard fever.) All that may take as long as five seconds. After that, you can think rationally again and understand the process of whatever decisions you make.
By feelings do you mean sensations or emotions? Pain begins at sensory pain receptors. When these are triggered, they transmit signals to the brain for processing into the conscious sensation of pain. If I stick my finger with a pin, the pain awareness is focused at the point of puncture, so I know where to deal with it. There are receptors that specialize for hot, cold, etc.
Emotional/feelings are different in that they begin in the brain. If I am walking and a large dog jumps out, I may notice a feeling of fear and the sensation of a thump in my heart, as the adrenaline starts to flow. The image of the dog enters my brain via my eyes. The brain processes this though filters of my mind, and then sends signals to my body and glands in preparation for fight/flight. These chemicals may induce internal feedback, via sensory nerves in my heart; that thump feeling.
One can also do this loop internally, without sensory input. Say I am at work thinking about my beloved. My imagination might induce memories which trigger feelings of love. The love comes from the limbic system in core regions of the brain. The love feeling can also trigger other things, and might be felt as a feedback sensation profile; fluttering heart. This sensation profile is different from the thump of adrenaline; internal language.
This internal language of brain related body sensation feedback is useful for thinking. It can provide internal feedback when one is analyzing ideas. The gut feeling is one useful feedback for thinking in the right direction. Depending on your level of sensitivity and awareness that gut feeling can also have various profiles which can be translated back into thought.
This brings us to intuition, which is a complex language of internal feelings and sensations. Some people can draw the correct conclusion even without formal or conscious inference. One may have a bad intuition (bad feeling) about a person, which does not seem to jive with the surface data. Others can't infer this conclusion based on the available data. The unconscious is picking up subliminal data and is drawing a conclusion and sending internal sensory feedback; uneasy feeling.
Years ago I work hard learning this language of internal sensation feedback. It speeds up creativity. There are what are called thalamic cortical thalamus loops. The thalamus is in the center of the brain near the limbic system. If you feel the feedback one can make use of the thalamus to stimulate the cerebral cortex; translation into connected thoughts.
Emotional/feelings are different in that they begin in the brain. If I am walking and a large dog jumps out, I may notice a feeling of fear and the sensation of a thump in my heart, as the adrenaline starts to flow. The image of the dog enters my brain via my eyes. The brain processes this though filters of my mind, and then sends signals to my body and glands in preparation for fight/flight. These chemicals may induce internal feedback, via sensory nerves in my heart; that thump feeling.
One can also do this loop internally, without sensory input. Say I am at work thinking about my beloved. My imagination might induce memories which trigger feelings of love. The love comes from the limbic system in core regions of the brain. The love feeling can also trigger other things, and might be felt as a feedback sensation profile; fluttering heart. This sensation profile is different from the thump of adrenaline; internal language.
This internal language of brain related body sensation feedback is useful for thinking. It can provide internal feedback when one is analyzing ideas. The gut feeling is one useful feedback for thinking in the right direction. Depending on your level of sensitivity and awareness that gut feeling can also have various profiles which can be translated back into thought.
This brings us to intuition, which is a complex language of internal feelings and sensations. Some people can draw the correct conclusion even without formal or conscious inference. One may have a bad intuition (bad feeling) about a person, which does not seem to jive with the surface data. Others can't infer this conclusion based on the available data. The unconscious is picking up subliminal data and is drawing a conclusion and sending internal sensory feedback; uneasy feeling.
Years ago I work hard learning this language of internal sensation feedback. It speeds up creativity. There are what are called thalamic cortical thalamus loops. The thalamus is in the center of the brain near the limbic system. If you feel the feedback one can make use of the thalamus to stimulate the cerebral cortex; translation into connected thoughts.
So there is a different receptor for each different thing? What I mean is that the receptor for sensation is different than the receptor for pain?
I meant merely the sensations. I just dont't seem to understand why we receive a stroke on our skin as touch and a punch as something painful.wellwisher said:
Yes, there are different receptor nerves for all those things. Some sense pressure, some temperature, and others pain. In fact, I read a very good article a couple of years ago (sorry, it's been so long that I don't have a link) that there are actually two independent sets of nerves for detecting pain and each has it's own separate pathway for delivering the information to the brain.
John Connellan
Valued Senior Member
I belive there is some exponential relationship between pressure and of an object and the sense of feeling/pain. I believ feeling and pain are the same thing and it is a continuum.
Try slowly increasing the amount of pressure between your finger and a pin head. At the beginning, under low pressure, you are tolerant of the pressure and you call it "feeling" or "touching". As you increase pressure, you sense less and less of the "feeling" and more and more pain. Because it is exponential, it very quickly goes from being "feeling" to what we perceive as pain - although always a smooth continuum and always based on the same signal pathways.
Try slowly increasing the amount of pressure between your finger and a pin head. At the beginning, under low pressure, you are tolerant of the pressure and you call it "feeling" or "touching". As you increase pressure, you sense less and less of the "feeling" and more and more pain. Because it is exponential, it very quickly goes from being "feeling" to what we perceive as pain - although always a smooth continuum and always based on the same signal pathways.
No, I'm far from convinced it's the exact same signal pathway. The sensations are totally different and therefore it seems so would be the group sensory nerves. If you can point to some medical evidence to support that idea I would like to see it.
@ OP,
Here is a good answer for your question.
If you attend a science center type place you will often see an exhibit about this.
Do you know there is no nerves in your body that detect "HOT". Nerves can detect "WARM" and "COLD" but not "HOT".
So how does your body detect "HOT"?
Well the science center will have cold coils mixed among warm coils and when your hand experiences both it gets the "hot" experience.
A hot object is so Energetic that it will make both sets of nerves respond. You also get Hot.
Pain is Sensory overload. It is entirely dependent upon your nerves.
Heat is a simple way to imagine it, but the system is compounded by worse injuries or actual contact with nerves.
"FEELING" is using your nerves in a normal capacity (i.e. detecting cold or warm ), and "PAIN" is likely using all nerves in that area with sensory overload.
You could say they are related, but certainly not the same.
Here is a good answer for your question.
If you attend a science center type place you will often see an exhibit about this.
Do you know there is no nerves in your body that detect "HOT". Nerves can detect "WARM" and "COLD" but not "HOT".
So how does your body detect "HOT"?
Well the science center will have cold coils mixed among warm coils and when your hand experiences both it gets the "hot" experience.
A hot object is so Energetic that it will make both sets of nerves respond. You also get Hot.
Pain is Sensory overload. It is entirely dependent upon your nerves.
Heat is a simple way to imagine it, but the system is compounded by worse injuries or actual contact with nerves.
"FEELING" is using your nerves in a normal capacity (i.e. detecting cold or warm ), and "PAIN" is likely using all nerves in that area with sensory overload.
You could say they are related, but certainly not the same.