Pain

I probably shouldn't be one to complain much about pain, but these last few days I have been especially sore from a combination of running, lifting weights and biking. There are a collection of oft mentioned phrase of mind over matter, no pain no gain and other motivational sayings in the weight room in the apartment that I now reside in. I think that it is funny how it takes little motivational posters to get people pumped up to lift weights. As if the reminder that, "No mortal was made to succeed without hard work" is going to help make me want to lift more weight. The combination of these phrases and my temporary roommates fascination with the MMA, have sparked some interest in the mechanisms of pain and the involvement of the brain. Watching some of those fights, it is unbelievable the pain and the damage that those competitors face in the octagon. Pain is often viewed as a topic that is hard to study, one that philosophers often point to when discussing subjective feelings and also the other minds problem. Does pain feel the same for me as it does for you? What causes my pain to be different than your pain?

We recognize the role of the brain in pain. It is almost undeniable even from the youngest age. Just watch as a small child falls down and scrapes their leg or something of the sort and how it doesn't bother them. Then seconds later an adult comes over to them to console them about their death defying injury and then the next thing you know, there is crying and tears everywhere. The focus of the attention on the injury caused a recognition and awareness of the pain.

There are many other examples of the brain's role in pain and injury, including phantom pain and psychogenic pain. Pain travels along two pathways, one is a sensory pathway which transmits the physical pain and the other is an emotional pathway which travels up the spinal cord to the amygdala and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC). So the experience to pain actually does have a negative emotional component to it. However, while this negative component can be an often very bad part of pain perception, leading to such problems as phantom pain and psychogenic pain, this mental component can also be harvested, cultivated and used as a weapon against pain.

In combination with fMRI, patients are able to actually view their pain. In a study, patients were asked to consciously increase their pain. When they did, an image of a flame on a screen became larger. Then the patients were asked to decrease their pain which caused the flame to decrease in size. Patients were able to reduce their pain by 30 - 40%. This demonstrates the power of biofeedback, mediation and other contemplative exercises. The ability to reflect and analyze how you think is a powerful tool to investigate your thoughts in all activities. Contemplative reflection is our only inbuilt tool for investigating the mind and one that is severely underused. It is something that begs the attention of scientific inquiry but at the same time something that science refuses to touch because of its inherent subjective qualities.