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Article: How the Brain Perceives Pain - Imaging of Pain.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The World and I
- Article date:
- November 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging have given us the ability to observe how different parts of the brain are activated when the patient suffers from damaging stimuli. Other methods (known as autoradiography and single-cell monitoring) have been used with animals, revealing greater details of how pain is processed.
Given that pain is influenced by our thoughts, emotions, and past experiences, behavioral and psychological studies are also needed to interpret data from the above techniques. By combining these approaches with new methods in molecular genetics, neuroscientists hope to gain a better ...