Pain Perception Within Consciousness

Abstract

As a psychological state, pain is perceived by the affected individual and it corresponds to a form of conscious awareness as a subjective conscious experience mediated in part by beliefs or emotions. Regardless of its 'physical' origins, pain, like all other perceptions, is a mental experience at different degrees of consciousness. The experience of pain requiring a stimulus, a feeling or emotion, and an effect or result, consists of an intermingling of chemical, biological, psychological, physiologic, socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic backgrounds, and emotional and cognitive factors. Not only the activation but also the connections are involved in conscious pain perception. Moreover, interconnectivity between the periaqueductal matter and orbitofrontal cortex is the key to cognitive-emotional responses associated with pain. Thus, the central pain control processes arising from interactions among the cognitive-evaluative, motivational-affective, and sensory-discriminative systems characterize the pain response, being also influenced by both noxious input and cognitive self-regulation. Neuroimaging studies (Davis et al., 2015) in healthy volunteers showed that pain cannot be localized in an isolated "pain center" in the brain, but it rather encompasses a neural circuitry.

Inner Navigation and Theta Activity: From Movement to Cognition and Hypnosis According to the Sphere Model of Consciousness

“…The Sphere Model of Consciousness developed by Paoletti [11][12][13][14][15] suggests that every experience of consciousness can be phenomenologically described as a movement within a spherical matrix. As will be illustrated in Section 4, the model provides that intentionality could be a means through which one can move from Narrative to Minimal Self and this, in turn, could allow deeper hypnotizability as well as other phenomena related to hypnosis, such as a reinterpretation of the nociceptive input underlying pain [16].…”

Reflections on Inner and Outer Silence and Consciousness Without Contents According to the Sphere Model of Consciousness

“…Pain is a conscious experience that can be considered an interpretation of nociceptive input influenced by memories, as well as emotional, pathological, genetic, and cognitive factors. It is thus more than just a qualitative experience or set of experiences ( Mordeniz, 2016 ). Beyond its immediate unpleasantness, emotions experienced in the anticipation of pain and in response to its meanings and perceived future consequences are related to the DMN and salience network ( Kucyi et al, 2014 ; van Ettinger-Veenstra et al, 2019 ).…”

Chronic low back pain and sick-leave: a functional magnetic resonance study

“…Previous authors have reinforced the role of psychosocial factors in the evolution from acute to chronic LBP -CLBP [4,5]. The poor physiologic understanding of CLBP is reflected in the characteristic inconstant and high variable response to treatment and also high recurrence rate [4,6]. Pain is a complex and subjective experience encompassing the interpretation of nociceptive stimuli influenced by memories, emotions, pathological, genetic and cognitive factors.…”

“…Pain is a complex and subjective experience encompassing the interpretation of nociceptive stimuli influenced by memories, emotions, pathological, genetic and cognitive factors. It is associated with working environment mis adjustments, acquired movement disability, sick-leave demands, loss of productivity, anxiety, depression and high socioeconomic cost [6,7]. Since Waddel's [8], the correlation between LBP and sick-leave demands has been strongly emphasized.…”