Pain and the neuromatrix in the brain.

Pain and the neuromatrix in the brain -- Melzack 65 (12): 1378 -- Journal of Dental Education

The neuromatrix theory of pain proposes that pain is a multidimensional experience produced by characteristic “neurosignature” patterns of nerve impulses generated by a widely distributed neural network—the “body-self neuromatrix”—in the brain. These neurosignature patterns may be triggered by sensory inputs, but they may also be generated independently of them. Acute pains evoked by brief noxi...

A pain neuromatrix approach to patients with chronic pain.

This paper presents an approach to rehabilitation of pain patients. The fundamental principles of the approach are (i) pain is an output of the brain that is produced whenever the brain concludes that body tissue is in danger and action is required, and (ii) pain is a multisystem output that is produced when an individual-specific cortical pain neuromatrix is activated. When pain becomes chroni...

From the gate to the neuromatrix.

The gate control theory's most important contribution to understanding pain was its emphasis on central neural mechanisms. The theory forced the medical and biological sciences to accept the brain as an active system that filters, selects and modulates inputs. The dorsal horns, too, were not merely passive transmission stations but sites at which dynamic activities (inhibition, excitation and m...

Pain myths and the genesis of central pain.

In light of the supposed failures of cortectomies or thalamotomies to relieve phantom percepts and pain, Melzack [3] proposed that the anatomical substrate of the physical self is a network of neurons that extends throughout widespread areas of the brain (Neuromatrix). The repeated cyclical processing and synthesis of nerve impulses in the neuromatrix imparts a characteristic pattern (neurosign...

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