Experiencing pain: perspectives of Patrick D. Wall—founding … : PAIN
l pain nucleus. Rather, it is a complex “signature” of brain activity normally driven by sensory stimuli, but in the event of pathology also from ectopic sources in injured nerves and associated dorsal root ganglia. Pain signatures are modulated in many ways: suppressed by gate control and descending brain pathways, augmented by peripheral and central sensitization, and massaged by abundant central feedback and feedforward loops. Pain experience is a complex function of a conscious brain. Ultimately, to understand pain is to understand conscious perception….
