Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Pain emotion and homeostasis

  • Invited Lecture
  • Published:
Neurological Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Pain has always been considered as part of a defensive strategy, whose specific role is to signal an immediate, active danger. This definition partially fits acute pain, but certainly not chronic pain, that is maintained also in the absence of an active noxa or danger and that nowadays is considered a disease by itself. Moreover, acute pain is not only an automatic alerting system, but its severity and characteristics can change depending on the surrounding environment. The affective, emotional components of pain have been and are the object of extensive attention and research by psychologists, philosophers, physiologists and also pharmacologists. Pain itself can be considered to share the same genesis as emotions and as a specific emotion in contributing to the maintenance of the homeostasis of each unique subject. Interestingly, this role of pain reaches its maximal development in the human; some even argue that it is specific for the human primate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Perl ER (2007) Ideas about pain, a historical view. Nat Rev Neurosci 8:71–80

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Schiff JM (1858) Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen Muskel und Nervenphysiologie. Schauenberg, Lahr (in German) (quoted in [1])

  3. Melzack R, Wall PD (1965) Pain mechanisms: a new theory. Science 150:971–979

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rainville P, Duncan GH, Price DD, Carrier B, Bushnell MC (1997) Pain affect encoded in human anterior cingulate but not somatosensory cortex. Science 277:968–971

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Craig (Bud) AD (2003) Pain mechanisms: labeled lines versus convergence in central processing. Annu Rev Neurosci 26:1–30

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Brooks JCW, Zambreanu L, Godinez A, Craig (Bud) AD, Tracey I et al (2005) Somatotopic organisation of the human insula to painful heat studied with high resolution functional imaging. Neuroimage 27:201–209

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Craig AD (2002) How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat Rev Neurosci 3:655–666

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Craig (Bud) AD (2004) Human feelings: why are some more aware than others? Trends Cogn Sci 8:239–241

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Craig (Bud) D (2009) How do you feel—now? The anteriorinsula and human awareness. Nat Rev Neurosci 10:59–70

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Craig (Bud) AD (2008) Interoception and emotion: a neuroanatomical perspective. In: Lewis M, Haviland-Jones JM, Barrett Feldman L (eds) The handbook of emotion, chap 16, third edn. Guilford Press, New York

  11. Medford N, Critchley HD (2010) Conjoint activity of anterior insular and anterior cingulate cortex: awareness and response. Brain Struct Funct. doi:10.1007/s00429-010-0265-x

  12. Starr CJ, Sawaki L, Wittenberg GF, Burdette JH, Oshiro Y, Quevedo AS, Coghill RC (2009) Roles of the insular cortex in the modulation of pain: insights from brain lesions. J Neurosci 29:2684–2694

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Strigo IA, Simmons AN, Matthews SC, Craig (Bud) AD, Paulus MP et al (2008) Increased affective bias revealed using experimental graded heat stimuli in young depressed adults: evidence of “emotional allodynia”. Psychosom Med 70:338–344

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Lamm C, Singer T (2010) The role of anterior insular cortex in social emotions. The role of anterior insular cortex in social emotions. Brain Struct Funct. doi:10.1007/s00429-010-0251-3

  15. Clark L, Bechara A, Damasio H, Aitken MRF, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2006) Differential effects of insular and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions on risky decision-making. Brain 131:1311–1322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Takahashi T, Wood SJ, Yung AR, Phillips LJ, Soulsby B, McGorry PD, Tanino R, Zhou SY, Suzuki M, Velakoulis D, Pantelis C (2009) Insular cortex gray matter changes in individuals at ultra-high-risk of developing psychosis. Schizophr Res 111:94–102

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Chen S, Li L, Xu B, Liu J (2009) Insular cortex involvement in declarative memory deficits inpatients with post-traumatic stress disorder. BMC Psychiatry 9:39. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-39

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Apkarian AV, Sosa Y, Sonty S, Levy RM, Harden R, Parrish TB, Gitelman DR (2004) Chronic back pain is associated with decreased prefrontal and thalamic gray matter density. J Neurosci 24:10410–10415

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Schmidt-Wilcke T, Leinisch E, Straube A, Kampfe N, Draganski B, Diener C, Bogdahn U, May A (2005) Gray matter decrease in patients with chronic tension type headache. Neurology 65:1483–1486

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Craig (Bud) AD (2010) The sentient self. Brain Struct Funct. doi:10.1007/s00429-010-0248-y

  21. Damasio A (2003) Feeling of emotion and self. Ann NY Acad Sci 1001:253–261

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Damasio A (2001) The person within. Nature 412:685–686

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Craig (Bud) AD (2003) A new view of pain as a homeostatic emotion. Trends Neurosci 26(6):303–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

The author declares that there is no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Farmacologia Chemioterapia e Tossicologia medica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Vanvitelli 32, 20129, Milan, Italy

    Alberto E. Panerai

Authors
  1. Alberto E. Panerai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto E. Panerai.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Panerai, A.E. Pain emotion and homeostasis. Neurol Sci 32 (Suppl 1), 27–29 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-011-0540-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-011-0540-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation