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Pain....
Defined* as an unpleasant emotional sensory experience, pain is in many ways a mystery.
Unpleasant: You don't like it. OK. That's reasonable. But I don't like asparagus. Other people do. Some just don't care.
Emotional: It involves fear, anger, panic, anxiety and much, much more. Your emotional state alters pain experience. Creatures without the ability to have emotion, such as an inchworm, don't experience pain. They may have nociception, but not pain. But does a dog experience pain? How about a bird?
Sensory: It's a message. Nerves are transmitting information from one part of your body to another.Pain doesn't just happen in your little finger. It requires more.
* By the International Association for the Study of Pain
How can you research something so vague?
Well, it's not easy.
In a sense, we have to study what it is as we're studying how it occurs and why.
Throughout the world, people have pain. Some a little. Some much more. Looking for differences between these people is part of the path to understanding pain. But we're not just looking at differences in height, weight and eye color (although all of that may matter...), we're going to have to look at genetics, age, culture, illness and much more.
There are many questions about pain.
We're looking for answers.
