Non-habituation to Pain

Last updated: Sat, Jun 24, 2017

Stimulation that is neither rewarding nor punishing is of small interest to the organism. The repetition of such neutral stimulation is soon ignored by the brain, a process known as habituation.

Pain, on the other hand, is important because it normally signals threat and/or damage. The brain does not habituate to pain. Pain, more than many other types of stimulation, increases the arousal of the central nervous system.1 Pain disrupts the brain's homeostatic regulation systems, thereby producing 'stress' and initiating complex hormonal and immunological programs to reinstate homeostasis.2