Joseph CascianiGeropsychologist, Consultant, Public Speaking, Freelance · Podcast Host of the Living to 100 Club | Clinical Strategies for Senior Residential Settings & Lifestyle Directors | Geropsychologist | Keynote Speaker

Chronic Pain Reset: Unmasking the Brain's Role in Processing Pain with Dr. Afton L. Hassett

21 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment, Dr. Afton L. Hassett explains the fundamentals of acute pain. She describes how pain originates from peripheral sources—such as tissue damage from a twisted ankle, surgical incisions, or inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis—where specialized nociceptors generate pain signals. These signals travel to the brain, which then interprets and perceives the pain. The explanation sets the stage for understanding how the brain processes pain signals, a key theme of the broader interview on chronic pain and its neural mechanisms.

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When somebody has acute pain, there usually is some damage, something that's generating the pain signal. So it could be a twisted ankle, you know, and the little pain generators are sending a message up. It could be a surgical incision that's creating the pain. It could be inflammation, as if somebody has rheumatoid arthritis and has inflamed joints. So that is kind of the acute pain process, that there is usually something somewhere in the periphery that's causing pain, and then the brain interprets that pain.