Summary
Nociception (also nocioception, from Latin nocere to harm or hurt) is the sensory nervous system's process of encoding noxious stimuli. It deals with a series of events and processes required for an organism to receive a painful stimulus, convert it to a molecular signal, and recognize and characterize the signal to trigger an appropriate defensive response. In nociception, intense chemical (e.g., capsaicin present in chili pepper or cayenne pepper), mechanical (e.g., cutting, crushing), or thermal (heat and cold) stimulation of sensory neurons called nociceptors produces a signal that travels along a chain of nerve fibers via the spinal cord to the brain. Nociception triggers a variety of physiological and behavioral responses to protect the organism against an aggression, and usually results in a subjective experience, or perception, of pain in sentient beings. Potentially damaging mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli are detected by nerve endings called nociceptors, which are found in the skin, on internal surfaces such as the periosteum, joint surfaces, and in some internal organs. Some nociceptors are unspecialized free nerve endings that have their cell bodies outside the spinal column in the dorsal-root ganglia. Other nociceptors rely on specialised structures in the skin to transduce noxious information such as nociceptive schwann cells. Nociceptors are categorized according to the axons which travel from the receptors to the spinal cord or brain. After nerve injury it is possible for touch fibres that normally carry non-noxious stimuli to be perceived as noxious. Nociceptive pain consists of an adaptive alarm system. Nociceptors have a certain threshold; that is, they require a minimum intensity of stimulation before they trigger a signal. Once this threshold is reached, a signal is passed along the axon of the neuron into the spinal cord. Nociceptive threshold testing deliberately applies a noxious stimulus to a human or animal subject to study pain.
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Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage." Pain motivates organisms to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future.
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Proprioception (ˌproʊpri.oʊˈsɛpʃən,_-ə- ), also called kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia), is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, mechanosensory neurons located within muscles, tendons, and joints. Most animals possess multiple subtypes of proprioceptors, which detect distinct kinematic parameters, such as joint position, movement, and load. Although all mobile animals possess proprioceptors, the structure of the sensory organs can vary across species.
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