Where pain really comes from

The wound does not appear to be very large. A cut on the index finger, a few centimeters long. Not really a big deal. It takes no more than a plaster to stop the bleeding. But the moment the blade of the kitchen knife cuts the skin, the irritated pain receptors (also known as nociceptors) fire pain signals into the brain via the A-delta fibers at 110 kilometers per hour. This is because there are around 250 sensory cells per square centimeter on the finger, whose task it is to transmit pain and temperature sensations to the brain.

Pain is an unpleasant experience for the vast majority of people, which they try to avoid. And yet pain is necessary for our survival. They are the signals that our brain about abnormalities in the body and immediate dangers. But pain is not just pain. While each person perceives it differently, pain also differs from person to person.

A broken bone does not hurt in the bone

Some of them are fast, short-lasting sensations, such as those that are transmitted via the fast A-delta fibers. Dull pain such as that transmitted to our central nervous system by the slow C-fibers, for example, is usually caused by chronic inflammation and can only be localized very roughly by the person affected. C-fibers usually detect the stimulation of nociceptors located in our organs.

While our organs are largely equipped with nociceptors, there are also parts of our body that cannot feel pain. These include our brain, our intervertebral discs and our bones. A bone fracture therefore does not hurt in the bone itself, but in the adjacent tissue that is injured by the fracture. However, although at first glance it seems as if medicine has already found out everything there is to know about pain, researchers are still working on the subject. researchers are still working intensively on our body’s pain codes.