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Pain

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...

Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways

Overview of Somatic Sensory Pathways

Somatic sensory or somatosensory pathways refer to the neural pathways that carry information related to touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and proprioception from the skin, muscles, tendons, and joints to the brain. These pathways involve several stages of processing and integration of sensory information.
The somatosensory system is divided into three main pathways: the dorsal (or posterior) column-medial lemniscus, spinothalamic (or anterolateral), and spinocerebellar pathways.
The dorsal...

Somatic Spinal Reflexes

Somatic Spinal Reflexes

Somatic spinal reflexes are rapid, involuntary muscular responses to external stimuli that involve the somatic musculature and the spinal cord.
One of the most well-known somatic spinal reflexes is the stretch reflex, which is activated by the sudden stretching of a muscle. This reflex involves the activation of specialized sensory receptors called muscle spindles, which are located in the muscle tissue and detect changes in the length and speed of muscle contractions. When a muscle is suddenly...

Nociception

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 Modalities

Sensory Modalities

Sensation typically is the process by which the sensory receptors and sense organs detect stimuli from the internal and external environment and transmit this information to the central nervous system for processing.
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 15, 2026

In Vivo Calcium Imaging of Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons' Response to Somatic and Visceral Stimuli

In Vivo Calcium Imaging of Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons' Response to Somatic and Visceral Stimuli

Published on: March 1, 2024

Visceral versus somatic pain: similarities and differences.

Fernando Cervero¹

¹The Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Que., Canada. fernando.cervero@mcgill.ca

Digestive Diseases (Basel, Switzerland)

|March 6, 2010

Summary

Chronic visceral pain in conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome differs from somatic pain. Mechanisms involve visceral nociceptor sensitization, epithelial changes, and central hypersensitivity, potentially influenced by hormones.

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In Vivo Calcium Imaging of Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons' Response to Somatic and Visceral Stimuli

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Published on: March 1, 2024

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Demonstration of Cutaneous Allodynia in Association with Chronic Pelvic Pain

Demonstration of Cutaneous Allodynia in Association with Chronic Pelvic Pain

Published on: June 23, 2009

Area of Science:

Gastroenterology
Neuroscience
Pain Research

Background:

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) cause chronic visceral pain and hyperalgesia.
Somatic pain mechanisms do not fully explain visceral pain, highlighting distinct psychophysical and neurobiological differences.
Visceral pain involves complex interactions between nociceptors and their microenvironment, including epithelial cell contributions.

Purpose of the Study:

To elucidate the unique neurobiological mechanisms underlying visceral pain in chronic conditions.
To differentiate visceral pain pathways from somatic pain pathways.
To explore factors contributing to visceral hypersensitivity and functional pain syndromes.

Main Methods:

Review of psychophysical and neurobiological mechanisms of visceral and somatic pain.
Investigation of visceral nociceptor activation and sensitization.
Analysis of central hypersensitivity mechanisms, including AMPA receptor dynamics.
Consideration of hormonal influences, particularly sex hormones, on visceral pain.

Main Results:

Visceral pain mechanisms differ significantly from somatic pain, involving specific microenvironmental influences on nociceptors.
Epithelial cell alterations can directly impact sensory neuron activation and contribute to enhanced visceral sensitivity.
Central sensitization in visceral pain involves mechanisms like AMPA receptor mobilization, distinct from somatic pain.
Hormonal factors, especially estrogen, may play a role in triggering or maintaining functional visceral pain syndromes like IBS.

Conclusions:

Visceral pain in IBD and IBS is mediated by distinct mechanisms compared to somatic pain.
Epithelial changes and central hypersensitivity, including AMPA receptor pathways, are key to visceral hyperalgesia.
Hormonal fluctuations represent a potential factor in the pathophysiology of functional visceral pain syndromes.