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Chapter 9: Touch and Pain

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Chapter 9: Touch and Pain

15 problems · 0 figures

9-1 §9.1 source ↗

Jill has suffered a bad burn on an area of her skin. She has damaged the epidermis and upper part of the dermis. The deeper dermis layers are intact and undamaged. Which touch receptors are likely to be impaired?
  1. a.
    Ruffini endings and Pacinian corpuscles
  2. b.
    Merkel disks and Pacinian corpuscles
  3. c.
    Merkel disks and Meissner’s corpuscles
  4. d.
    Ruffini endings and Meissner’s corpuscles

Answer

C. Merkel disks and Meissner’s corpuscles

9-3 §9.1 source ↗

Which receptors have small, accurate receptive fields and are encapsulated?
  1. a.
    Free nerve endings
  2. b.
    Pacinian corpuscles
  3. c.
    Meissner’s corpuscles
  4. d.
    Ruffini’s endings

Answer

C. Meissner’s corpuscles

9-5 §9.1 source ↗

Nociceptors transduce which kind of sensory information?
  1. a.
    Mechanical pain
  2. b.
    Thermal pain
  3. c.
    Chemical pain
  4. d.
    All of the above

Answer

D. All of the above

9-7 §9.1 source ↗

Which of the following fibers has the fastest conduction speed?
  1. a.
    A-alpha
  2. b.
    A-beta
  3. c.
    A-delta
  4. d.
    C fiber

Answer

A. A-alpha

9-9 §9.2 source ↗

Pain and touch:
  1. a.
    are transduced by the same receptors.
  2. b.
    follow the same spinal pathways.
  3. c.
    use only myelinated fibers
  4. d.
    none of the above.

Answer

D. none of the above.

9-11 §9.2 source ↗

Mechanosensitive touch sensation information from the right side of the body is processed by which side of the primary somatosensory cortex?
  1. a.
    Left
  2. b.
    Right
  3. c.
    Both sides
  4. d.
    We don’t know which side of the primary somatosensory cortex processes information from which side of the body

Answer

A. Left

9-13 §9.2 source ↗

You have encountered a patient in a clinic reporting widespread loss of pain and sensation on her left side after a recent fall. Where would her injury most likely be to cause these symptoms?
  1. a.
    In her right cortex
  2. b.
    In her left cortex
  3. c.
    In her right thoracic spine
  4. d.
    In her left thoracic spine

Answer

A. In her right cortex

9-15 §9.2 source ↗

Descending inhibition of pain acts primarily on which part of the pain sensory system?
  1. a.
    The primary pain afferents in the spinal cord
  2. b.
    The S1 neurons that receive pain information
  3. c.
    The limbic system
  4. d.
    The thalamic nuclei

Answer

A. The primary pain afferents in the spinal cord

9-17 §9.3 source ↗

Which of the following can influence pain perception?
  1. a.
    Gender/sex
  2. b.
    Social factors
  3. c.
    Psychological factors like attention
  4. d.
    All of these

Answer

D. All of these

9-19 §9.3 source ↗

Which brain system is most responsible for the emotional response to pain?
  1. a.
    Limbic system
  2. b.
    Primary somatosensory cortex
  3. c.
    Thalamus
  4. d.
    Descending inhibitory system

Answer

A. Limbic system

9-21 §9.3 source ↗

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been shown to reduce chronic pain in some cases. Where could these drugs be acting to have this effect?
  1. a.
    At the terminals of dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons in the limbic system
  2. b.
    In the spinal cord terminals of dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons
  3. c.
    Both A and B
  4. d.
    Neither A nor B

Answer

C. Both A and B

9-23 §9.4 source ↗

Pain treatment:
  1. a.
    can be achieved with a variety of methods, including drugs, surgery, and non-invasive techniques.
  2. b.
    requires opioids.
  3. c.
    is pharmacological (drugs) or invasive (involving surgery).
  4. d.
    is not possible.

Answer

A. can be achieved with a variety of methods, including drugs, surgery, and non-invasive techniques.

Fill in the Blank 9.1 §9.1 source ↗

Free nerve endings transmit pain signals related to mechanical, thermal, or chemical sources. They are called ________.

Answer

nociceptors

Fill in the Blank 9.3 §9.2 source ↗

The body surface is represented by different segments of the spinal cord, each of which is called a ________.

Answer

dermatome

Fill in the Blank 9.5 §9.3 source ↗

________ pain results from direct injury to nerves in the peripheral or central nervous systems and often involves a burning or electric sensation.

Answer

Neuropathic

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Problems and answers are adapted from Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience by Elizabeth D. Kirby, Melissa J. Glenn, Noah J. Sandstrom and Christina L. Williams, OpenStax, and are used under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience/pages/1-introduction. Illustrations: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This adaptation is released under the same licence, is non-commercial, and is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by OpenStax or Rice University.