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Related Concept Videos

Pain01:20

Pain

Pain serves as a critical warning signal that alerts the body to potential or actual harm. When mechanical pressure on the skin is intense, such as from a sharp pinch, the sensation transitions from touch to pain. Similarly, extreme temperatures, like a hot pot handle, convert the sensation of heat into pain. Pain can also result from overstimulation of other senses, such as blinding light, loud noise, or the intense heat from habañero peppers. This ability to sense pain is essential for...
Nociception01:44

Nociception

Nociception—the ability to feel pain—is essential for an organism’s survival and overall well-being. Noxious stimuli such as piercing pain from a sharp object, heat from an open flame, or contact with corrosive chemicals are first detected by sensory receptors, called nociceptors, located on nerve endings. Nociceptors express ion channels that convert noxious stimuli into electrical signals. When these signals reach the brain via sensory neurons, they are perceived as pain. Thus, pain helps the...
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System01:11

Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System

The somatosensory system is the central and peripheral nervous system component that senses and processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or proprioception. The process of sensation takes place at three levels:
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
Tactile and Chemical Senses01:27

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex. This...
Sensory Functions of the Skin01:16

Sensory Functions of the Skin

The skin is the largest organ of the human body and plays a crucial role in our sensory perception. It contains a vast network of sensory receptors that contribute to the skin's protective function by perceiving physical, biological, and environmental cues and generating relevant responses.
There are two main categories of receptors on the skin: capsulated and non-capsulated. The non-capsulated ones are mainly the pain receptors. The capsulated ones can be further categorized based on the...
Thermosensation01:43

Thermosensation

Peripheral thermosensation is the perception of external temperature. A change in temperature (on the surface of the skin and other tissues) is detected by a family of temperature-sensitive ion channels called Transient Receptor Potential, or TRP, receptors. These receptors are located on free nerve endings. Those detecting cold temperatures are closer to the surface of the skin than the nerve endings detecting warmth. These thermoTRP channels, while temperature selective, have relatively...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Multi-Modal Signals for Analyzing Pain Responses to Thermal and Electrical Stimuli
09:16

Multi-Modal Signals for Analyzing Pain Responses to Thermal and Electrical Stimuli

Published on: April 5, 2019

Perceiving pain in others: automatic and controlled mechanisms.

Kenneth D Craig1, Judith Versloot, Liesbet Goubert

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. kcraig@psych.ubc.ca

The Journal of Pain
|December 8, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Understanding how people perceive others' pain involves recognizing automatic, reflexive expressions that trigger emotional responses and controlled, intentional expressions that prompt reflection on pain origins. This impacts social neuroscience research.

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Published on: January 21, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Clinical neuroscience
  • Cognitive science
  • Behavioral science
  • Social neuroscience

Background:

  • Pain expression is regulated by automatic and controlled neuroregulatory systems.
  • Observer reactions to pain expression involve both automatic and controlled mechanisms.
  • Different types of pain expression elicit distinct observer responses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review research on pain perception in others.
  • To present a theoretical model for understanding how pain is perceived.
  • To explore the interplay between pain expression and observer reactions.

Main Methods:

  • Review of recent developments in clinical, cognitive, behavioral, and social neuroscience.
  • Analysis of studies on automatic and controlled neuroregulatory systems governing pain expression.
  • Examination of reciprocal mechanisms in observers' reactions.

Main Results:

  • Automatic pain expression (unintentional, reflexive) elicits immediate, visceral emotional reactions in observers.
  • Controlled pain expression (intentional, purposive) prompts observers to reflect on the pain's nature and origins.
  • Observer reactions are influenced by whether pain expression is perceived as spontaneous or purposive.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding another's pain involves interpreting spontaneous behavioral reactions and purposive communications.
  • Spontaneous reactions trigger reflexive, emotional responses.
  • Purposive communications may be confounded with situational demands, complicating accurate perception.