Hello drayer-rebecca at yale.edu ,
}I'm interested in the neural aspects of pain and analgesia. Does anyone
}have any information about this, particularly about the descending
}mechanisms of pain control?
Me and my advisor in the Electrical Engineering department are beginning to
develop a theory on the mechanisms of acupuncture -- both a healing and
anesthetic technique developed in China.
It turns out that a high incidence of acetylcholine and other
neurotransmitters are found at acupuncture points. Upon proper insertion of
the acupuncture needle, meridian-specific hormones (and I believe the
neurotransmitters also) spread all over the body.
More to your point, the book principles of neuroscience by Koester et al.
does a good job of introducing neurobiology (even a numb-skulled
computer scientist like me could understand it) . I believe it introduces pain
theories such as the gate control theory later... I'm not there yet but the
first part of the book is very very good for someone like me.
Finally, although I missed the talk, my advisor said that one of his students
presented a paper on a current theory of pain. I can get the references for
you. And again finally, Index Medicus is an excellent reference that your
library probably has that will allow you to look up all published papers on
the subject of pain. But my focus is acupuncture and its relation to the
nervous system.
Terrence Brannon tb06 at pl122e.eecs.lehigh.edu
medical biology via acupuncture and particle physics
primitive knowledge reign supreme over nearly every1
