Can The Brain Feel Pain?

The technical name given to headache is headache. The head includes many structures, including the brain, but can the brain feel pain? After all, what’s really hurting when we get headaches?

The head includes the bones of the skull, the skin and many muscles, the entire brain and the venous and nerve structures that circulate there. The brain is another organ of the  brain  and therefore just a part of the head.

The origin of headaches is multiple. Sometimes there are common headaches, which are caused by a little tiredness or stress and nothing else. Other times, a headache is a sign of a serious illness, such as a stroke.

To know whether the brain can feel pain, we first  need to consider whether or not there are pain receptors in brain tissue. Areas of the body lacking these receptors are unable to produce pain.

The brain has no pain receptors

Pain receptors are called nociceptors. These are sensory structures, that is, they are associated with the possibility of feeling something. When a stimulus activates the nociceptor, it can trigger a sensation of pain.

Nociceptors are present in many tissues, but not in the brain. When these receptors are stimulated, such as when we touch something warm, for example, they transmit the pain signal to the brain through the spinal cord.

There are nociceptors outside our body, on the skin and inside, in certain organs. There are also mucous membranes with these receptors, as well as muscles that contain nociceptors inside them.

The brain, then, cannot feel pain. He takes the information that comes to him from nociceptors all over his body and interprets it, but it’s not a pain in his brain. Their neighboring structures have nociceptors, like the meninges.

Because it does not have pain receptors, the brain can be operated under local anesthesia, as is done in many neurosurgeries. The shell of the skull is opened and the patient is awake while the surgeons work on his brain, as the interventions do not cause pain there.

The brain doesn’t feel pain, but interprets it

As we have already seen, the brain cannot feel pain, but it is responsible for interpreting the signals it receives from nociceptors distributed throughout the body. For some neurologists, it is correct to say that the brain generates pain, as it is the brain that tells us that something is hurting.

When a nociceptor detects a physical, thermal, pressure, or chemical change that could be harmful, it alerts the brain. Through the spinal cord, information emerges from the receiver and seeks an interpretation in the brain tissue.

The brain collects the data and issues a response, which is conditioned by who we are, that is, by what we have lived before and learned. An order will then be drawn up to be carried out. If dangerous pain has been detected, the order might be to remove the hand from the spot, move, jump, run or perhaps wait a little longer.

There are people who train to bear pain, like boxers. The hits they receive are registered by the brain so they can gain experience. In response to subsequent blows, the response is no longer the same, because the brain has accumulated information that allows it to decide better.

However, there are limits to pain that go beyond the experience. Pain is a defense mechanism the body uses to warn of health dangers. A good pain recognition system is what keeps us alive as a species.

So what does the headache mean?

Since we know that the brain cannot hurt, it is worth asking  why the head hurts. Well, the answer lies in the other structures in the skull.

The headache may start in the skin of the head, meninges or arteries in the skull. Neck muscles, with a cervical contracture, can also cause it. The brain will interpret the signals from these structures and decide if it’s pain or not.

Blood flow is a common source of migraine. When circulation in the arteries or veins in the head is impaired, nociceptors in the vessels alert the brain. That’s why some migraine medications are based on modifying vasoconstriction.

The brain can’t feel pain, but we can

The fact that the brain does not feel pain does not mean that we are beings incapable of perceiving it. Rather,  brain tissue connects us with the outside through pain perception  and, at the same time, interprets our internal environment through organ nociceptors. Finally, the brain cannot feel pain, but we as a whole can.