PATH 1000 UNIT 4 EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED
What is pain?
Is an unpleasant sensory & emotional experience associated
with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage
What is nociception?
The perception of pain
What is pain tolerance? Decreased how? increased how?
Duration of time or intensity of pain an individual will endure before displaying
noticeable pain responses
Repeated exposure, fatigue, anger etc.
Alcohol consumption, hypnosis, warmth
What is pain threshold?
Is the minimum intensity at which a person begins to perceive or sense a stimulus
as painful
What are the four main theories of pain?
Specificity theory
Pattern theory
Neuromatrix theory
Gate control theory
What is specificity theory is?
,Specific pain receptors transmit signals to "pain center" in brain that
produces perception of pain
What is pattern theory?
Pain signals sent to brain only when stimuli come together to produce specific
combination or pattern
What is neuromatrix theory?
Brain produces pattern of nerve impulse from different parts of the body (eg.
genetic, psychologic, cognitive)
What is gate control theory? suggests? which inhibitory fibers close the gate?
Gates open or close along the pain pathway (most well known theories of pain
physiologically)
That the spinal cord determines which impulses reach the brain
Massage, electrical stimulation
What are the 3 systems needed for pain?
Afferent pathways, interpretative centers & efferent pathways
What are afferent pathways?
Begin in the PNS, travel to the spinal gate in the dorsal horn and
then ascend to higher centers in the CNS
What are interpretative centers?
Are located in the brainstem, midbrain, diencephalon & cerebral cortex
What are efferent pathways?
Descend from the CNS back to dorsal horn of spinal cord & modulate pain
Nociception: what are the phases?
,Transduction
Transmission
Perception
Modulation
Nociception Phases: explain what transduction involves
Starts when tissue is damaged by exposure to chemical, mechanical or thermal noxious
stimuli and is converted to electrophysiologic activity
Nociception Phases: explain what transmission involves
Conduction of pain impulses in dorsal horn of spinal cord and to brainstem,
thalamus and cortex
Nociception Phases: explain what perception involves
Is the conscious awareness of pain (involves sensory-discriminating system, affective
motivational system, cognitive-evaluative system)
Nociception Phases: explain what modulation involves
Is the physiologic process of suppressing or facilitating pain
Nociceptors: categorized as? are? name the 2 different kinds
Primary-order neurons
Nerve endings in the skin, muscle, joints, arteries & viscera that respond to
chemical, mechanical & thermal stimuli
Myelinated A-delta fibers & unmyelinated C polymodal fibers
What is the difference between myelinated A-delta fibers vs unmyelinated C
polymodal fibers? In what ways are they both similar?
Fast transmission & conveys mechanical & thermal, sharp localized pain
, Slower transmission & conveys diffuse burning & aching sensations
Both fibers terminate on second-order neurons
What are secondary-order neurons?
Are neurons that function as a pain gate to regulate pain transmission & are
either excitatory or inhibitory and cross over the spinal cord & ascend
What are third-order neurons? function?
Are afferent neurons in the spinothalamic tract
Carry information to the sensory cortex & reticular and limbic system to process
and interpret pain
Clinical Description of Pain: nociceptive pain is? nonnociceptive pain is?
Somatic & visceral
Peripheral & central
Acute pain is/function?
A protective mechanism with the function to alert the person to a condition or
experience that is harmful
Chronic pain is?
Prolonged and lasts longer than 3 months
Acute Pain: somatic vs visceral arises from?
Connective tissue, muscle, bone & skin
Internal organs & lining of body cavities
Give an examples of neuropathic chronic pain
Phantom limb chronic pain (pain is felt in an amputated limb after stump has healed)
Neuralgia (chronic nerve pain)
WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED
What is pain?
Is an unpleasant sensory & emotional experience associated
with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage
What is nociception?
The perception of pain
What is pain tolerance? Decreased how? increased how?
Duration of time or intensity of pain an individual will endure before displaying
noticeable pain responses
Repeated exposure, fatigue, anger etc.
Alcohol consumption, hypnosis, warmth
What is pain threshold?
Is the minimum intensity at which a person begins to perceive or sense a stimulus
as painful
What are the four main theories of pain?
Specificity theory
Pattern theory
Neuromatrix theory
Gate control theory
What is specificity theory is?
,Specific pain receptors transmit signals to "pain center" in brain that
produces perception of pain
What is pattern theory?
Pain signals sent to brain only when stimuli come together to produce specific
combination or pattern
What is neuromatrix theory?
Brain produces pattern of nerve impulse from different parts of the body (eg.
genetic, psychologic, cognitive)
What is gate control theory? suggests? which inhibitory fibers close the gate?
Gates open or close along the pain pathway (most well known theories of pain
physiologically)
That the spinal cord determines which impulses reach the brain
Massage, electrical stimulation
What are the 3 systems needed for pain?
Afferent pathways, interpretative centers & efferent pathways
What are afferent pathways?
Begin in the PNS, travel to the spinal gate in the dorsal horn and
then ascend to higher centers in the CNS
What are interpretative centers?
Are located in the brainstem, midbrain, diencephalon & cerebral cortex
What are efferent pathways?
Descend from the CNS back to dorsal horn of spinal cord & modulate pain
Nociception: what are the phases?
,Transduction
Transmission
Perception
Modulation
Nociception Phases: explain what transduction involves
Starts when tissue is damaged by exposure to chemical, mechanical or thermal noxious
stimuli and is converted to electrophysiologic activity
Nociception Phases: explain what transmission involves
Conduction of pain impulses in dorsal horn of spinal cord and to brainstem,
thalamus and cortex
Nociception Phases: explain what perception involves
Is the conscious awareness of pain (involves sensory-discriminating system, affective
motivational system, cognitive-evaluative system)
Nociception Phases: explain what modulation involves
Is the physiologic process of suppressing or facilitating pain
Nociceptors: categorized as? are? name the 2 different kinds
Primary-order neurons
Nerve endings in the skin, muscle, joints, arteries & viscera that respond to
chemical, mechanical & thermal stimuli
Myelinated A-delta fibers & unmyelinated C polymodal fibers
What is the difference between myelinated A-delta fibers vs unmyelinated C
polymodal fibers? In what ways are they both similar?
Fast transmission & conveys mechanical & thermal, sharp localized pain
, Slower transmission & conveys diffuse burning & aching sensations
Both fibers terminate on second-order neurons
What are secondary-order neurons?
Are neurons that function as a pain gate to regulate pain transmission & are
either excitatory or inhibitory and cross over the spinal cord & ascend
What are third-order neurons? function?
Are afferent neurons in the spinothalamic tract
Carry information to the sensory cortex & reticular and limbic system to process
and interpret pain
Clinical Description of Pain: nociceptive pain is? nonnociceptive pain is?
Somatic & visceral
Peripheral & central
Acute pain is/function?
A protective mechanism with the function to alert the person to a condition or
experience that is harmful
Chronic pain is?
Prolonged and lasts longer than 3 months
Acute Pain: somatic vs visceral arises from?
Connective tissue, muscle, bone & skin
Internal organs & lining of body cavities
Give an examples of neuropathic chronic pain
Phantom limb chronic pain (pain is felt in an amputated limb after stump has healed)
Neuralgia (chronic nerve pain)
