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1

Tsotsos, John Konstantine. Localizing stimuli in a sensory field using an inhibitory attentional beam. Toronto: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto, 1991.

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2

Young, Laurence R. Visual-vestibular interaction: Final report for NASA grant NAG 2-445. [Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1994.

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3

Young, Laurence R. Visual-vestibular interaction: Final report for NASA grant NAG 2-445. [Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1994.

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4

Young, Laurence R. Visual-vestibular interaction: Final report for NASA grant NAG 2-445. [Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1994.

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5

Stoneley, Sarah, and Simon Rinald. Sensory loss. Edited by Patrick Davey and David Sprigings. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199568741.003.0047.

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Sensory disturbance can either be a complete loss (anaesthesia) or a reduction (hypoaesthesia) in the ability to perceive the sensory input. Dysaesthesia is an abnormal increase in the perception of normal sensory stimuli. Hyperalgesia is an increased sensitivity to normally painful stimuli, and allodynia is the perception of usually innocuous stimuli as painful. A complete loss of sensation is likely to be due to a central nervous system problem, while a tingling/paraesthesia (large fibre) or burning/temperature (small fibre) sensation is likely due to an acquired peripheral nervous system problem. Shooting, electric-shock-like pains suggest radicular pathology, a tight-band spinal cord dysfunction. Positive sensory symptoms are usually absent in inherited neuropathies, even in the context of significant deficits on examination. This chapter describes the clinical approach to patients with sensory symptoms. Common patterns of sensory loss and their causes are described.
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6

Grimaldi, Stephanie J., and Emily R. Stern. Sensory Processing and Intolerance in OCD. Edited by Christopher Pittenger. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190228163.003.0011.

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Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often exhibit abnormal sensitivity to sensory stimuli and a reduced ability to screen out stimuli that most do not find bothersome. This chapter reviews evidence documenting increased sensitivity to external sensory stimuli (auditory, olfactory, tactile) and reduced sensory gating in patients with OCD. In some individuals such sensitivity can present as a primary symptom. Many patients with OCD also experience sensations that appear to be “internally generated,” including not-just-right experiences, incompleteness, and physical urges; this is the focus of the second half of the chapter. These sensations, termed “sensory phenomena,” cause significant distress and impairment in daily functioning and may require different treatments than fear-based obsessions. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of directions for future research that may provide further insight into the nature of sensory symptoms as well as potential treatments.
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7

Kinney, Norman Eugene. Measurement of behavioral functionality of the olfactory system following bulbectomy and nerve section and the role of olfaction in conditioned flavor aversion. 1985.

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8

Mason, Peggy. Perceiving the World. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190237493.003.0014.

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As exemplified by sensory illusions, perception is interpretative rather than faithfully representational of the changes in the world. All perceptual pathways involve stimulus transduction, transmission, and modulation before sensory events are coded by the nervous system. The set of stimuli that humans respond to are a subset of the stimuli that elicit reactions across the animal kingdom. The brain processes visual, auditory, mechanical, and vestibular stimuli by breaking stimuli into their sinusoidal components for neuronal processing. The probabilistic response of sensory receptors to stimulation within a receptive field is described. A fundamental property of sensory perception is responsiveness to a wide range of stimulus intensities over several orders of magnitude. Yet, at any one time, the response to a stimulus is proportional to the background level of stimulation. The concept of labeled line sensory transmission is described, and the reality of multimodal integration is revealed through examples.
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9

Guillery, Ray. Interacting with the world. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198806738.003.0012.

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In this chapter, the extent to which actions and perceptions depend on each other is explored particularly for the visual system. Viewing the world through a mirror or a lens that displaces or inverts images provides examples of our ability to learn new sensorimotor consistencies. The use of sensory prostheses that replace one sensory modality with another, for example, visual by tactile stimuli or vestibular by tactile stimuli, provides examples of the capacity of our brains to learn about new sensorimotor relationships, often with surprising rapidity, even in an adult.
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10

Serences, John T., and Sabine Kastner. A Multi-level Account of Selective Attention. Edited by Anna C. (Kia) Nobre and Sabine Kastner. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.013.022.

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To achieve behavioural goals, relevant sensory stimuli must be processed more quickly and reliably than irrelevant distracters. The ability to prioritize relevant over irrelevant stimuli is usually referred to as selective information processing, or selective attention. Over the last 50–60 years, there has been an ongoing debate about the point along the sensory–response processing stream at which selective attention operates: are relevant and irrelevant inputs segregated early in processing based on low-level featural differences, or does this segregation occur late in processing after the meaning of each stimulus has been computed? As with nearly all dichotomies in psychology, the emerging consensus is that neither extreme is correct. Instead, depending on task demands, the mechanisms of selective attention can flexibly operate on the quality of low-level sensory representations as well as on later stages of semantic analysis and decision-making.
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11

Wyatt, Tristram D. 2. Sensing and responding. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198712152.003.0002.

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How an animal behaves is coordinated by nerves and hormones in different, complementary ways. Stimuli, such as the sound of a predator, cause fast behavioural responses coordinated by nerve signals. The stimuli also cause longer lasting physiological changes via hormones, which release energy sources needed for the muscle action required for escape. ‘Sensing and responding’ considers the sensory responses of bats and moths, and then explains selective sensitivity—how animals evolve to detect only what affects their survival or reproductive success. It also shows how the study of neural circuits in simple model systems, such as sea slugs, can help us understand more complicated behaviours in other animals.
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12

Martin, Graham R. Postscript: Conclusions, Implications, and Comment. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199694532.003.0010.

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The natural world contains a huge amount of constantly changing information but specializations within sensory systems mean that each species receives only a small part of that information. Information is filtered by sensory systems. We cannot assume what a bird can detect–it is important to measure its sensory capacities and to quantify the sensory challenges posed for the conduct of tasks in different environments. No sensory system can function adequately throughout the full ranges of stimuli that are found in the natural world. There have been many trade-offs in the evolution of particular sensory capacities and tradeoffs and complementarity between different sensory capacities within a species. Birds may often be guided by information at the limits of their sensory capacities. Information that guides behaviours may often be sparse and partial. Key behaviours may only be possible because of cognitive abilities which allow adequate interpretation of such partial information.
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13

Mole, Christopher. Attention. Edited by Eric Margolis, Richard Samuels, and Stephen P. Stich. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195309799.013.0009.

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The article focuses on Broadbent's approach to the explanation of attention. Broadbent shows that one's information-processing resources have sufficient capacity to encode the simple physical properties of all the stimuli that one is presented with, but have only a limited capacity for the encoding of the semantic properties of those stimuli. The resulting model depicts perceptual processing as proceeding in two stages. The first stage entails that a large capacity sensory system processes the physical features of all stimuli in parallel. A subset of the representations generated by the large capacity system are selected to be passed on to a second perceptual system, which has a smaller processing capacity, and which has the job of processing the stimuli's semantic properties. Broadbent's theory would explain that pre-bottleneck processing is responsible for the detection of simple physical features, and also for own-name detection. The phenomenology of one's shifting awareness in conditions of binocular rivalry is naturally described as the manifestation of a competition, and perhaps of a biased competition.
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14

Cohen, Marlene R., and John H. R. Maunsell. Neuronal Mechanisms of Spatial Attention in Visual Cerebral Cortex. Edited by Anna C. (Kia) Nobre and Sabine Kastner. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.013.007.

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Attention is associated with improved performance on perceptual tasks and changes in the way that neurons in the visual system respond to sensory stimuli. While we now have a greater understanding of the way different behavioural and stimulus conditions modulate the responses of neurons in different cortical areas, it has proven difficult to identify the neuronal mechanisms responsible for these changes and establish a strong link between attention-related modulation of sensory responses and changes in perception. Recent conceptual and technological advances have enabled progress and hold promise for the future. This chapter focuses on newly established links between attention-related modulation of visual responses and bottom-up sensory processing, how attention relates to interactions between neurons, insights from simultaneous recordings from groups of cells, and how this knowledge might lead to greater understanding of the link between the effects of attention on sensory neurons and perception.
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15

Price, Chane, Zahid Huq, Eellan Sivanesan, and Constantine Sarantopoulos. Pain Pathways and Pain Physiology. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190457006.003.0001.

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Pain is a multidimensional sensory experience that is mediated by complex peripheral and central neuroanatomical pathways and mechanisms. Typically, noxious stimuli activate specific peripheral nerve terminals onto Aδ‎ and C nerve fibers that convey pain and generate signals that are relayed and processed in the spinal cord and then conveyed via the spinothalamic tracts to the contralateral thalamus and from there to the brain. Acute pain is self-limited and resolves with the healing process, but conditions of extensive injury or inflammation sensitize the pain pathways and generate aberrant, augmented responses. Peripheral and central sensitization of neurons (as a result of spatially and temporally excessive inflammation or intense afferent signal traffic) may result in hyperexcitability and chronicity of pain, with spontaneous pain and abnormal evoked responses to stimuli (allodynia, hyperalgesia). Finally, neuropathic pain follows injury or disease to nerves as a result of hyperexcitability augmented by various sensitizing mechanisms.
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16

Beninger, Richard J. Neuroanatomy and dopamine systems. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198824091.003.0011.

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Neuroanatomy and dopamine systems explains how sensory signals ascend the central nervous system via a series of nuclei; axons detecting specific elements converge onto higher-order neurons that respond to particular stimulus features. Assemblies of feature-detection cells in the cerebral cortex detect complex stimuli such as faces. These cell assemblies project to motor nuclei of the dorsal and ventral striatum where they terminate on dendritic spines of efferent medium spiny neurons. Dopaminergic projections from ventral mesencephalic nuclei terminate on the same spines. Individual corticostriatal afferents contact relatively few medium spiny neurons and individual dopaminergic neurons contact a far larger number. Stimuli activate specific subsets of corticostriatal synapses. Synaptic activity that is closely followed by a rewarding stimulus, that produces a burst of action potentials in dopaminergic neurons, is modified so that those specific corticostriatal synapses acquire an increased ability to elicit approach and other responses in the future, i.e., incentive learning.
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17

Allen, Colin, James W. Grau, and Mary W. Meagher. The Lower Bounds of Cognition: What Do Spinal Cords Reveal? Edited by John Bickle. Oxford University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195304787.003.0006.

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This article examines the role of the spinal cords in cognition. It reviews animal science research that challenges the view that behavioral responses to sensory stimuli that do not involve brain mediation are fixed, automatic, and non-cognitive in nature. This research has shown the spinal cord to be a flexible and interesting learning system in its own right. This article discusses the consequences of these findings for philosophical understanding of the relationship between learning, cognition, and even consciousness. The article also explains the relevant concepts of instrumental conditioning and antinociception and conditioned antinociception.
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18

Hari, Riitta. Magnetoencephalography. Edited by Donald L. Schomer and Fernando H. Lopes da Silva. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190228484.003.0035.

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This chapter introduces magnetoencephalography (MEG), a tool to study brain dynamics in basic and clinical neuroscience. MEG picks up brain signals with millisecond resolution, as does electroencephalography, but without distortion by skull and scalp. The chapter describes current instrumentation based on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). It delineates basic characteristics of measured signals: (1) brain rhythms and their reactivity during sensory processing and various tasks and (2) evoked responses elicited by sensory stimuli, and the dependence of these responses on various stimulus characteristics. Signals are described from healthy and diseased brains. The chapter presents studies of the brain basis of cognition and social interaction studied in dual-MEG setups and describes how MEG applications can be broadened by innovative setups, including frequency tagging. Progress in the field is predicted regarding sensor technology, data analysis, and multimodal brain imaging, all of which could strengthen MEG’s role in the study of brain dynamics.
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19

Buchner, Helmut. Evoked potentials. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199688395.003.0015.

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Evoked potentials (EPs) occur in the peripheral and the central nervous system. The low amplitude signals are extracted from noise by averaging multiple time epochs time-locked to a sensory stimulus. The mechanisms of generation, the techniques for stimulation and recording are established. Clinical applications provide robust information to various questions. The importance of EPs is to measure precisely the conduction times within the stimulated sensory system. Visual evoked potentials to a pattern reversal checker board stimulus are commonly used to evaluate the optic nerve. Auditory evoked potentials following ‘click’ stimuli delivered by a headset are most often used to test the auditory nerve and for prognostication in comatose patients. Somatosensory evoked potentials to electrical stimulation of distal nerves evaluate the peripheral nerve and the lemniscal system, and have various indications from demyelinating diseases to the monitoring of operations and prognosis of comatose patients.
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20

Summerfield, Christopher, and Tobias Egner. Attention and Decision-Making. Edited by Anna C. (Kia) Nobre and Sabine Kastner. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.013.018.

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This chapter reviews formal models of the decision process in humans and other primates, and discusses divergent accounts of how attention might intervene to bias or facilitate judgements about sensory stimuli. The review covers established decision-theoretic models, such as signal detection theory and serial sampling models, and other computational accounts that draw upon psychophysical and neurobiological mechanisms of early vision. It considers whether such decisions are limited by attentional capacity, or by noise, as suggested by normative models of choice. The authors revisit a debate concerning whether attention acts to boost inputs, enhance activity, or reduce noise. Finally, the authors consider the relationship between attention and expectation in perceptual decision-making.
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21

Parncutt, Richard. Prenatal development and the phylogeny and ontogeny of music. Edited by Susan Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut. Oxford University Press, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199298457.013.0020.

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This article focuses on musically relevant psychological aspects of prenatal development: the development of perception, cognition, and emotion; the relationships between them; and the musical and musicological implications of those relationships. It begins by surveying relevant foetal sensory abilities: hearing, the vestibular sense of balance and acceleration, and the proprioceptive sense of body orientation and movement. All those senses are relevant for musical development, since in all known cultures music is inseparable from bodily movement and gesture, whether real or implied. The article then considers what sounds and other stimuli are available to the foetus: what patterns are the earliest to be perceptually learnt? It examines psychological and philosophical issues of foetal attention, ‘consciousness’, learning, and memory. The article closes with speculations about the possible role of prenatal development in the phylogeny of musical behaviours.
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22

Mason, Peggy. Introduction to the Nervous System. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190237493.003.0001.

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The primary regions and principal functions of the central nervous system are introduced through the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby who became locked in after suffering a brainstem stroke. Bauby blinked out his story of locked-in syndrome one letter at a time. The primary deficit of locked-in syndrome is in voluntary movement because pathways from the brain to motoneurons in the brainstem and spinal cord are interrupted. Perception is also disturbed as pathways responsible for transforming sensory stimuli into conscious awareness are interrupted as they ascend through the brainstem into the forebrain. Homeostasis, through which the brain keeps the body alive, is also adversely affected in locked-in syndrome because it depends on the brain, spinal cord and autonomic nervous system. Abstract functions such as memory, language, and emotion depend fully on the forebrain and are intact in locked-in syndrome, as clearly evidenced by Bauby’s eloquent words.
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23

Scolari, Miranda, Edward F. Ester, and John T. Serences. Feature- and Object-Based Attentional Modulation in the Human Visual System. Edited by Anna C. (Kia) Nobre and Sabine Kastner. Oxford University Press, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199675111.013.009.

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To increase efficiency, sensory systems process only a subset of available inputs in accord with the behavioural goals of the observer. The mechanisms that support the prioritization of relevant over irrelevant stimuli, referred to collectively as selective attention, can operate on the basis of spatial location (space-based attention), low-level visual features (e.g. orientation or colour; feature-based attention), or holistic objects (object-based attention). This chapter reviews human behavioural, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging data pertaining to the effects and control of the latter two mechanisms. Based on an increasingly rich literature spanning several decades, the authors argue that even though feature- and object-based attention are often treated as independent mechanisms, they should instead be described along a single continuum in which the information selected for prioritized processing (whether it be a single feature or a holistic object representation) is flexibly dictated by task demands.
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24

Tsur, Reuven. Elusive Qualities in Poetry, Receptivity, and Neural Correlates. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190457747.003.0013.

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Arnheim’s terms “actively organizing mind” and “passively receiving mind” can usefully be applied in practical criticism to suggest the significance of poetic structures as described by more concrete terms. But it is not quite clear what exactly they refer to. This chapter explores how the latter term can be illuminating in close readings of poems by Verlaine. Neuropsychological findings proposed in the last section fill those terms with more solid meaning. When you experience sensory stimuli, certain areas in the secondary somatosensory cortex light up. When you perceive yourself as the voluntary agent causing the sensations, this activity is suppressed. This may account for the observation that the actively organizing mind is less sensitive to elusive sensations in poetry than a passive attitude. This chapter explores the linguistic means—syntactic, semantic, and phonetic—by which Verlaine’s texts manipulate the fictional speaker and/or the flesh-and-blood reader into a passive stance.
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25

Thompson, Phillip D., Hiroshi Shibasaki, and Mark Hallett. The Neurophysiological Basis of Myoclonus. Edited by Donald L. Schomer and Fernando H. Lopes da Silva. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190228484.003.0037.

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There are several types of myoclonus, with a variety of classification schemes, and the clinician must determine what type of myoclonus a patient has and what type of neurophysiological assessment can facilitate diagnosis. The electromyographic (EMG) correlate of the myoclonus should be examined, including the response to sensory stimuli (C-reflex). The electroencephalographic (EEG) correlate of the myoclonus should then be examined, possibly including back-averaging from the myoclonus or looking at corticomuscular (EEG–EMG) coherence. The somatosensory evoked response (SEP) should be obtained. Such studies will help determine the myoclonus origin, most commonly cortical or brainstem. One form of cortical myoclonus has the clinical appearance of a tremor (cortical tremor). Brainstem myoclonus includes exaggerated startle (hyperekplexia). Other forms of myoclonus include spinal myoclonus and functional myoclonus, which have their own distinct physiological signature. Several causes of myoclonus are reviewed, including rare types such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.
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26

McDougall, Jason J., and Joel A. Vilensky. The innervation of the joint and its role in osteoarthritis pain. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199668847.003.0007.

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Diarthrodial joints possess an extensive network of sensory and sympathetic nerve fibres whose physiological functions are varied and complex. Nerves are primarily located in the synovium but also innervate the subchondral bone, the outer third of menisci, and the superficial surface of tendons and ligaments. Large-diameter, myelinated neurons are involved in joint position sense while small-diameter neurons with thin or no myelin typically sense pain. The small-diameter nerves in conjunction with sympathetic fibres control synovial blood flow and maintain joint homeostasis. In patients with osteoarthritis (OA), the sensory nerves become sensitized and increase their firing rate in response to normal movement. This peripheral sensitization is mediated by numerous algogenic agents released into the OA knee including neuropeptides, eicosanoids, and proteinases. A portion of joint afferents fire in the absence of mechanical stimuli and encode pain at rest. Interestingly, the firing rate of joint afferents does not correlate with OA severity, indicating that pain is a poor predictor of joint pathology. Evidence is accumulating to suggest that a subpopulation of OA patients who are unresponsive to classical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be suffering from neuropathic pain in which there is damage to the joint nerves themselves. Better understanding of the biology of joint nerves could help in the development of patient-targeted therapies to alleviate OA pain and inflammation.
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27

Scadding, John. Neuropathic pain. Oxford University Press, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198569381.003.0386.

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Pain signalled by a normal sensory system, nociceptive pain, serves a vital protective function. The peripheral and central nervous somatosensory systems permit rapid localization and identification of the nature of painful stimuli, prior to appropriate action to minimize or avoid potentially tissue damaging events. A reduction or absence of pain resulting from neurological disease emphasizes the importance of this normal protective function of pain. For example, tissue destruction occurs frequently in peripheral nerve diseases which cause severe sensory loss such as leprosy, and in central disorders such as syringomyelia. Neuropathic pain results from damage to somatosensory pathways and serves no protective function. This chapter provides an overview of neuropathic pain, considering its context, clinical features, pathophysiology, and treatment.In the peripheral nervous system, neuropathic pain is caused by conditions affecting small nerve fibres, and in the central nervous system by lesions of the spinothalamic tract and thalamus, and rarely by subcortical and cortical lesions. The clinical feature common to virtually all conditions leading to the development of neuropathic pain is the perception of pain in an area of sensory impairment, an apparently paradoxical situation. The exception is trigeminal neuralgia.Neuropathic pain is heterogeneous clinically, aetiologically, and pathophysiologically. Within a given diagnostic category, whether defined clinically or aetiologically, there are wide variations in reports of pain by patients. This heterogeneity poses one of the greatest challenges in understanding the mechanisms of neuropathic pain. Knowledge of the pathophysiology is an obvious pre-requisite to the development of effective treatments. The goal of a pathophysiologically based understanding of the symptoms and signs of neuropathic pain is, of course, just such a rational and specific approach to treatment. While this is not yet achievable, clinical-pathophysiological correlations have led to some recent advances in treatment.
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28

Colvin, Lesley A., and Marie T. Fallon. Pain physiology in anaesthetic practice. Edited by Jonathan G. Hardman. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199642045.003.0009.

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The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as ‘an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage’. A good understanding of the physiology of pain processing is important, with recent advances in basic science, functional neuroimaging, and clinical pain syndromes contributing to our understanding. It is also important to differentiate between nociception, the process of detecting noxious stimuli, and pain perception, which is a much more complex process, integrating biological, psychological, and social factors. The somatosensory nervous system, from peripheral nociceptors, to sensory nerves and spinal cord synapses has many potential sites for modulation, with ascending pathways to the brain, balanced by ‘top-down’ control from higher centres. Under certain circumstances, for example, after tissue injury from trauma or surgery, there will be continued nociceptive input, with resultant changes in the whole somatosensory nervous system that lead to development of chronic pain syndromes. In such cases, even when the original injury has healed, the pathophysiological changes in the nervous system itself lead to ongoing pain, with peripheral or central sensitization, or both. Additionally, in some chronic pain syndromes, for example, chronic widespread pain, it has been postulated that abnormalities in central processing may be the initiating factor, with some evidence for this from neuroimaging studies. Further work is needed to fully understand pain neurobiology in order to advance our management.
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29

McClune, Grace, and David Hill. Non-pharmacological methods of pain relief and systemic analgesia in labour. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198713333.003.0013.

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Pain in labour is an issue common to women the world over. Healthcare professionals have an important role in helping women to understand this pain and to make informed choices regarding its management. Pain relief for labour comes in many forms. This chapter explores the theory behind labour pain and then discusses the use of non-pharmacological methods of pain relief (complementary therapies) or systemic analgesia in labour. The non-pharmacological methods described include those that aim to reduce painful stimuli and those that modulate pain sensation by the activation of peripheral sensory receptors or the enhancement of descending inhibitory pathways. Systemic analgesia in labour described in this chapter includes the use of inhalational agents, non-opioid analgesia, and opioid analgesia. The rationale behind the use of each method described is discussed along with evidence regarding the efficacy and limitations where available. Routes of administration and dosing are included where applicable. The potential for maternal or neonatal side effects is highlighted and conclusions drawn for each method as to the implications of the evidence to use in practice.
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30

Purves, Dale. Brains as Engines of Association. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190880163.001.0001.

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Brains as Engines of Association seeks an operating principle of the human brain and is divided into four parts. The first part (“What Nervous Systems Do for Animals”) is intended to set the stage for understanding the emergence of neural systems as promoting what all organisms must accomplish: survival and reproduction. The second part (“Neural Systems as Engines of Association”) lays out the general argument that biological sensing systems face a daunting problem: they cannot measure the parameters of the world in the way physical instruments can. As a result, nervous systems must make and update associations (synaptic connections) on the basis of empirical success or failure over both evolutionary and individual time. The third part (“Evidence that Neural Systems Operate Empirically”) reviews evidence accumulated over the past 20 years that supports this interpretation in vision and audition, the sensory systems that have been most studied from this or any other perspective. Finally, the fourth part (“Alternative Concepts of Neural Function”) considers the pros and cons of other interpretations of how brains operate. The overarching theme is that the nervous systems of humans and every other animal operate on the basis associations between stimuli and behavior made by trial and error over species and lifetime experience.
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