Pain Misconceptions

Emotional and physical pain, according to popular belief, are thought to stem from two different places in the brain.
However, the origin of both types of pain occur in the same place. With physical pain an injury occurs, and the damaged area triggers nerve cells to send signals of anguish to the brain. The signals received are then very rapidly processed in the automatic, subconscious part of the brain. The amygdala and limbic structures of the brain are in place to alert us in case of danger. If an injury does take place the cortex of the brain is triggered by these structures, resulting in the registration of pain to the area of distress. Thus pain is a response of the brain to a signal of danger. In the article it mentions a study by Kross and colleagues that included an experiment on college students after a mild physical injury (an electric shock) and after viewing a photograph of an ex-lover who left them in the previous six months. The dorsal posterior insula and the somatosensory cortex areas both illuminated,
The importance of this research is to clarify two misconceptions. First, actual pain can occur in the absence of injury; and second, events that affect the