Brain and Pain: Brain for Perception Not for Feeling - An Insight

Abstract

In exploring the rare connection of the brain and pain, we come across many complex concepts. The absence of pain receptors in the brain and brain being the seat of perception is just formidable to understand. This information has been used since the last several decades to perform awake brain surgeries. Pain as sensory stimuli is just like a tip of the iceberg because it has a multitude of dimensions. Tracing the journey of pain impulse is indispensable to understand the concept of pain perception. It was a strenuous job to locate the pain matrix and discover the functions of distinct areas of the brain in pain perception. The endogenous analgesic system forms the substratum in the arch of Descending pain modulatory pathway which decides whether the pain is terrible or tolerable. It is very important to understand the difference between a headache and brain ache. Emotions and pain are like the two faces of the same coin. This review is a general topic of interest and discusses the concept of pain perception and modulation.