When the brain receives pain from an internal organ, it often projects the pain in the wrong place because of the way sensory nerve paths converge

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

• Nerve: a whitish fiber or bundle of fibers that transmits impulses of sensation to the brain or spinal cord, and impulses from these to the muscles and organs.
• Nerve impulse: a signal transmitted along a nerve fiber. It consists of a wave of electrical depolarization that reverses the potential difference across the nerve cell membranes.
• Referred pain: pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus/origin. It is the result of a network of interconnecting sensory nerves that supplies many different tissues.
• Sensory cortex: the region of the brain that deals with sensory information.

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CREDITS

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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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REFERENCES

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Foreman, Robert D., et al. “Mechanisms of Cardiac Pain.” Comprehensive Physiology, 16 Mar. 2015, pp. 929–960, https://doi.org/10.1002/cphy.c140032

Martini, Frederic, et al. Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology. 11th ed., Harlow, Pearson Education Limited, 2018.

Mense, S. “Neurobiologische Mechanismen Der Übertragung von Muskelschmerz.” Der Schmerz, vol. 7, no. 4, Dec. 1993, pp. 241–249, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02529860

Mustafa Al-Chalabi, et al. “Neuroanatomy, Spinothalamic Tract.” Nih.gov, StatPearls Publishing, 8 Aug. 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507824/

Schultz, Harold D. “The Spice of Life Is at the Root of Cardiac Pain.” The Journal of Physiology, vol. 551, no. 2, Sept. 2003, pp. 400–400, https://doi.org/10.1113%2Fjphysiol.2003.050104

US), Medicine, et al. “The Anatomy and Physiology of Pain.” Nih.gov, National Academies Press (US), 2023, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219252/