Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 3, 2025
09:00
Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
Published on: October 3, 2020
3.9K
Pain suffering and the self. An active allostatic inference explanation
1Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
|February 13, 2024
Summary
This study proposes a multidimensional self-model to explain pain experiences and related conditions like pain asymbolia. This framework integrates active inference and allostasis for a unified understanding of pain processing and self-regulation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Pain perception is complex, involving sensory and emotional components.
- Atypical pain conditions challenge current models of pain processing.
- Understanding the neural basis of self-representation is crucial for explaining subjective experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a self-modelling account of distributed pain processing.
- To explain phenomena such as pain asymbolia and related conditions.
- To reconcile conflicting theories of pain asymbolia.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling integrating active inference and allostasis.
- Analysis of neural correlates of pain processing.
- Hierarchical self-modelling framework.
Main Results:
- A multidimensional self-model explains pain experience and atypical conditions.
- The model accounts for neural associations and dissociations without modularity.
- Pain processing is framed as allostatic active inference for bodily regulation.
Conclusions:
- The self-modelling account offers a unified framework for understanding pain.
- Depersonalization and pain asymbolia emerge at different levels of self-modelling.
- This approach reconciles deaffectualization and depersonalization accounts of pain asymbolia.
Related Concept Videos
01:20Pain
481
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...
481
01:44Nociception
27.9K
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.
27.9K
01:24Primary Motives: Sleep, Sex, and Pain Avoidance
616
Primary motives such as sleep, sex, and pain avoidance are crucial drivers of behavior in humans and animals. These motives ensure survival, reproductive success, and overall well-being by prompting actions that meet essential bodily needs.
Sleep is a fundamental physiological drive that fosters a state of restfulness crucial for several bodily functions. It facilitates body restoration, the process by which the body repairs, rejuvenates, and maintains itself during sleep, including memory...
Sleep is a fundamental physiological drive that fosters a state of restfulness crucial for several bodily functions. It facilitates body restoration, the process by which the body repairs, rejuvenates, and maintains itself during sleep, including memory...
616
02:57The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
49.9K
According to Charles Cooley, we base our image on what we think other people see (Cooley 1902). We imagine how we must appear to others, then react to this speculation. We don certain clothes, prepare our hair in a particular manner, wear makeup, use cologne, and the like—all with the notion that our presentation of ourselves is going to affect how others perceive us. We expect a certain reaction, and, if lucky, we get the one we desire and feel good about it. But more than that, Cooley...
49.9K
01:25Analgesia and Pain Management
623
Pain is critical to various clinical pathologies, provoking an urgent need for effective management. Pain, whether acute or chronic, is a complex neurochemical process. Its alleviation depends on the type, with nonopioid analgesics effective for mild to moderate pain, such as musculoskeletal or inflammatory pain, while neuropathic pain responds best to anticonvulsants, tricyclic antidepressants, or serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. For severe acute or chronic pain, opioids may be...
623
01:55Egoism and Altruism
92.0K
Voluntary behavior with the intent to help other people is called prosocial behavior. Why do people help other people? Is personal benefit such as feeling good about oneself the only reason people help one another?
92.0K