As a gamer with a background in neuroscience, I can’t help but marvel at the fascinating connections between my two favorite pastimes – video games and brain function! The concept of pain management through distraction, as demonstrated by Major Payne in “Major Payne,” is reminiscent of the strategy used in Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM) experiments.
From a young age, we discover that our bodies are delicate and prone to injury if not handled carefully. During their initial years, children often gather scrapes and bruises as they learn to distinguish between safe and risky actions. Pain serves as a signal that something is amiss, yet over countless millennia, evolution has intricately complexified the natural pain response system within us.
Believe it or not, you can find insight into the experience of pain in the 1995 military comedy Major Payne (streaming now on Peacock). The movie opens on the battlefield, smoke rolls over dark hills, and explosions punctuate the night as soldiers push their way into a drug compound. Major Benson Winifred Pain – known to his friends and enemies as Major Payne (Damon Wayans) – encounters a fellow soldier who’s been shot in the arm. He’s lying on the ground, bleeding, gritting his teeth in pain, and the major offers to help.
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Major Payne checks out the wound, then suggests a distraction for the injured soldier: “Shall I demonstrate a small trick to help you ignore your arm?” The soldier, intrigued, agrees. Payne cautions that there might be some “pressure” and proceeds to twist a finger at a 90-degree angle, breaking the bone. The soldier yells out in pain, “My finger! My finger!” To which Major Payne replies, “It always works.
A less refined approach, but Major Payne is right about this: Research indicates that a strong, unpleasant sensation can momentarily overpower another. So, the sudden shock of a broken bone could potentially reduce the discomfort from a prior gunshot injury for a brief period.
What is pain and how does it work?
If you accidentally stub your toe, step on a toy, or touch something hot, you’ll instantly feel a strong and uncomfortable sensation. This sharp pain is typically followed by a persistent discomfort that clearly tells you to avoid repeating the action you just made.
Pain comes in many flavors, both acute (the immediate pain of injury) and chronic (pain that lingers for months or years and sometimes has no clear cause). There’s nociceptive pain caused by injury and there’s neuropathic pain caused by nerve damage. These feelings can differ in their precise sensation and despite pain’s nearly universal nature, people struggle to describe what they’re feeling. Common descriptors include words like sharp, dull, burning, electric, throbbing, splitting, stabbing, shooting, and sickening, but even these don’t totally capture what pain feels like.
In its intense form, pain can dominate entirely, erasing all other thoughts and sensations. It’s not surprising that throughout history, we’ve striven tirelessly to find ways to alleviate it. Despite our aversion towards it, generally speaking, pain plays a crucial role in maintaining our wellbeing. It serves as a signal from our bodies that something is amiss, urging us into action. Here’s how the process unfolds:
When we get hurt, specialized nerve cells (pain receptors) at the injury location transmit messages to the spinal cord. From there, these messages journey up to the brain. Upon arrival, the brain deciphers this message, plans a response, and sends commands back down through various types of nerve fibers. The signals traveling along myelinated fibers reach their destination faster, such as prompting you to remove your hand from a hot stove. Conversely, the slower moving unmyelinated fibers are responsible for the persistent, longer-lasting pain that encourages rest and healing.
Suppressing pain with pain (and distractions)
The experience of pain is subjective, varying from person to person, and influenced by a number of other factors. Even the same injury to the same person might feel different on a different day or other differing circumstances. Understanding the variables which feed into the experience of pain help us to find better ways of managing it, including new strategies for treating chronic pain.
In lab studies, scientists frequently employ a research technique known as Conditioned Pain Modulation (CPM), which can be likened to Major Payne’s trick using a broken finger. The specific setup of experiments may differ, but the fundamental concept remains consistent. Initially, a pain-inducing stimulus, referred to as the test stimulus, is applied separately and then again in conjunction with another (conditioning) pain-inducing stimulus.
Typically, the test stimulus is either pain caused by heat or electricity, while the conditioning stimulus comes from cold water or an injection of fluid. The key point is that participants in these studies feel two distinct pains, from different parts of their body, simultaneously. These studies demonstrate that the test stimulus appears less intense when there’s another stimulus (or distraction) present. Interestingly, researchers have also found they can replicate these results by engaging participants with puzzles and brain games. Essentially, it seems that if the brain is occupied with something else – be it a game or another source of pain – it will devote less attention to the initial source of pain.
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2024-11-26 22:01