Physiological Research

Last updated: Sun, Jul 28, 2024

Research into the physiology of pain revealed much of the content of How Pain Is Made and continues to explore pain from the level of molecules up to the level of the organization and the functioning of the nervous system. The entire toolkit of molecular biology and medical research is available. It is now possible to listen in on the electrical signals in live individual cells within a live organism, although this is possible primarily with non-human subjects. It is possible to observe the behavior of individual neural receptors “in a test tube.” Electron microscopy allows small protein structures such as neural receptors to be seen. Protein molecules can be tagged with fluorescent markers and introduced into living organisms, allowing the location of the molecules to be watched and recorded. Brain imaging techniques allow researchers to see which areas of the brain are engaged, to measure the density of different structures, and to roughly map connectivity within the brain.

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Human Physiological Research (Last updated: Sun, Jul 28, 2024)

Animal Research Models (Last updated: Fri, Jun 30, 2017)

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Pyschological/Behavioral Research (Last updated: Fri, Feb 7, 2025)