Questions and All Correct Answers
2025-2026 Updated.
Pain - Answer A complex interaction between physical, cognitive, spiritual, emotional, and
environmental factors
Gate control theory - Answer -A pain control theory
-A-delta and C fibers open the gate, other sensations may close the gate
Neuromatrix theory - Answer - A pain control theory
-Brain produces patterns of nerve impulses drawn from various inputs including genetic,
psychologic, and cognitive experiences
Pain perception - Answer Conscious awareness of pain
Sensory-discriminative - Answer -Somatosensory cortex identifies presence, character,
location and intensity of pain
-Identifies pain is there and finds where it is coming from
Affective-motivational - Answer -Individual's emotional response to pain
-Mediated through reticular formation, limbic system, and the brainstem
Cognitive-evaluative - Answer -Can modualate pain by overlying learned behavior
-Mediated through the cerebral cortex
Pain threshold - Answer -The lowest intensity of pain that a person can recognize
-Pain in one location may increase the threshold in another
Pain tolerance - Answer -The greatest intensity of pain that a person can tolerate
Afferent pathways - Answer -Pathway to the brain for pain
-Begin with pain receptors, travel to spinal gate in dorsal horn, then ascend to higher centers in
CNS
Interpretive centers - Answer -Pathway to the brain for pain
, -Located in brain stem, midbrain, diencephalon and cerebral cortex
Efferent pathways - Answer -Pathway to the brain for pain
-Descend from CNS back to dorsal horn of spinal cord
Nociceptors - Answer Pain receptor
Pain transduction - Answer Begins when tissue is damaged by exposure to chemical,
mechanical, or noxious stimuli stimulating nociceptors
Pain transmission - Answer The conduction of pain impulses to the spinal cord
Endorphins and Enkephalins - Answer -Peptide neurotransmitters made by the brainstem
and released in the spinal cord
-Attach to opiate receptors
-Within the posterior horn receptors for opioids shut off pain signal at synapses
Acute pain - Answer -Protective mechanism against bodily harm
-Usually lasting seconds to days
-Autonomic nervous system stimulated
Somatic - Answer -A type of acute pain
-Superficial and well localized pain
-sharp, dull, aching, or throbbing
Visceral - Answer -A type of acute pain
-poorly localized, aching, gnawing, throbbing
-Pain often radiates from original site
Chronic pain - Answer Pain lasting 3-6 months or well beyond the expected normal healing
time
Hyperethesias - Answer Increased sensitivity and decreased pain threshold to tactile and
painful stimuli
Hemiagnosia - Answer Loss of ability to identify source of pain on one side of body