What can evolutionary theory tell us about chronic pain Acute injury escape danger amp find safety care for wound rest injured part conserve energy be alert to ID: 1018787
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1. Amanda C de C WilliamsUniversity College London, UKWhat can evolutionary theory tell us about chronic pain?
2. Acute injury - escape danger & find safety - care for wound - rest injured part - conserve energy - be alert to further threatAs healing proceeds - return to normal activities - start to use injured part - avoid circumstances associated with injury. Injury-related behavior
3. SensitizationSensitization includes - increased nervous system sensitivity to tactile, chemical, mechanical & thermal stimuli - arousal - vigilance to threatAll facilitate a rapid response to potential threat or injury
4. The advantage of sensitizationCrook, Dickson, Hanlon & Walters, Current Biology 2014;24:1121-5Nociceptive sensitization reduces predation riskSensitization of defensive responses after injury suggests “powerful evolutionary selection pressures”.Nociceptive sensitization following injury in squid changed their behavior such that they were less predated.Price & Dussor, Current Biology 2014;24:R384Evolution: the advantage of ‘maladaptive’ pain plasticity““These findings have profound implications for pain neuroscientists and clinicians and, we will argue, for neurobiology in general.”
5. Pain sets priorities for survivalSo: how much pain is optimal in a particular situation?To answer, we need: ecologically valid pain stimuli and pain responses in experimental work awareness of environmental and social context in experimental work evolutionary models of cognitive, emotional and social processes in painImplications