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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.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 5, 2026

Determining Pain Detection and Tolerance Thresholds Using an Integrated, Multi-Modal Pain Task Battery

Determining Pain Detection and Tolerance Thresholds Using an Integrated, Multi-Modal Pain Task Battery

Published on: April 14, 2016

Monitoring surgical nociception using multisensor physiological models.

Sandya Subramanian¹, Bryan Tseng², Marcela Del Carmen³

¹Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|September 24, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Objective monitoring of surgical nociception (the nervous system's response to harmful stimuli) is crucial for anesthesia. This study introduces new models using autonomic nervous system activity to accurately track nociception during surgery, improving patient care.

Keywords:

anesthesia autonomic nervous system multimodal point process surgical nociception

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Last Updated: May 5, 2026

Determining Pain Detection and Tolerance Thresholds Using an Integrated, Multi-Modal Pain Task Battery

Determining Pain Detection and Tolerance Thresholds Using an Integrated, Multi-Modal Pain Task Battery

Published on: April 14, 2016

Objective Nociceptive Assessment in Ventilated ICU Patients: A Feasibility Study Using Pupillometry and the Nociceptive Flexion Reflex

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Published on: July 4, 2018

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

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

Published on: April 5, 2019

Area of Science:

Anesthesiology
Neuroscience
Biomedical Engineering

Background:

Current methods for monitoring surgical nociception rely on subjective assessments of heart rate and blood pressure.
Objective monitoring of nociception is challenging, leading to potential intraoperative drug under- or overdosing.
Inefficient nociception management can result in complex postoperative pain and cognitive dysfunction, especially in elderly patients.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and validate objective, multisensor-based markers for quantifying surgical nociception.
To improve intraoperative anesthesia care by providing accurate, real-time nociception monitoring.
To establish physiology-based markers derived directly from surgical data.

Main Methods:

Collected a comprehensive dataset of 101 surgeries, including nociceptive stimuli and administered medications.
Developed indices of autonomic nervous system activity using point process models of cardiac action potentials and sweat gland activity.
Constructed interpretable supervised and unsupervised models to quantify surgical nociception.

Main Results:

The developed models accurately track nociceptive stimuli during surgery.
The models' characterization of nociception aligns with known physiological responses to pain.
The new markers demonstrate higher accuracy compared to existing nociception monitors.

Conclusions:

This work presents a significant advancement toward objective, physiology-based markers for surgical nociception.
The developed markers are derived from actual surgical data, avoiding reliance on surrogate experimental models.
These objective markers have the potential to optimize anesthesia care and improve patient outcomes.