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Related Concept Videos

Social Facilitation01:04

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Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
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The chemical and physical properties of plasma membranes cause them to be selectively permeable. Since plasma membranes have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, substances need to be able to transverse both regions. The hydrophobic area of membranes repels substances such as charged ions. Therefore, such substances need special membrane proteins to cross a membrane successfully. In  facilitated transport, also known as facilitated diffusion, molecules and ions travel across a...
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The chemical and physical properties of plasma membranes cause them to be selectively permeable. Since plasma membranes have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, substances need to be able to transverse both regions. The hydrophobic area of membranes repels substances such as charged ions. Therefore, such substances need special membrane proteins to cross a membrane successfully. In  facilitated transport, also known as facilitated diffusion, molecules and ions travel across a...
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Descending facilitation.

Min Zhuo1,2

  • 11 Center for Neuron and Disease, Frontier Institutes of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.

Molecular Pain
|March 23, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Descending facilitation from the brainstem controls spinal pain transmission and may link emotional disorders to chronic pain. This review explores its history and role in pain.

Keywords:
Descending facilitationanterior cingulate cortexchronic painmicepainrostroventral medial medullaserotonin

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pain Research
  • Spinal Cord Modulation

Background:

  • Sensory transmission, including pain, is modulated at the spinal dorsal horn.
  • Descending facilitation plays a significant role in chronic pain conditions.
  • Neurobiological studies link cortical potentiation to descending facilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the history of brainstem-spinal descending facilitation.
  • To explore new findings and hypotheses regarding descending facilitation in chronic pain.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing neurobiological and pain research literature.
  • Analysis of the link between cortical activity and descending pain modulation.
  • Examination of the role of brainstem pathways in pain control.

Main Results:

  • Descending facilitation from the brainstem powerfully controls spinal pain transmission.
  • Cortical-spinal pathways, via brainstem neurons, influence pain signaling.
  • This descending control provides a neuronal basis for linking emotional states to pain.

Conclusions:

  • Descending facilitation is a critical mechanism in pain modulation.
  • Understanding brainstem-spinal pathways is key to addressing chronic pain.
  • The interplay between emotional disorders and pain is mediated by these descending pathways.