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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Dynamic Quantitative Sensory Testing to Characterize Central Pain Processing
Published on: February 16, 2017
Central neural mechanisms that interrelate sensory and affective dimensions of pain
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. dprice@dental.ufl.edu
Abstract:
The perception of pain is highly complex, and requires neural integration from a variety of routes. Spinal pathways to the amygdala, hypothalamus, reticular formation, medial thalamic nuclei, and limbic cortical structures transmit information involved arousal, bodily regulation, and emotional responses. Other, albeit indirect, pathways can carry signals to these same structures, for example, from spinal pathways to somatosensory thalamic and cortical areas, and from these to cortical limbic structures. Indirect cortico-limbic pathways integrate nociception with information about the status of the body and indirect routes must culminate in the prioritization of emotions and responses to pain.
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