There is a paper in Science, Sound induces analgesia through corticothalamic circuits, on how the intensity of sound reduced pain in mice. Part of the abstract stated that, “Sound—including music and noise—can relieve pain in humans, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. We discovered that analgesic effects of sound depended on a low (5-decibel) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relative to ambient noise in mice. Our study reveals the corticothalamic circuits underlying sound-promoted analgesia by deciphering the role of the auditory system in pain processing.”
Pain is a property of the mind. Conceptually, the human mind is the collection of all the electrical and chemical impulses of nerve cells and their interactions. Electrical impulses as a group are quantities or travelers, while chemical impulses are properties or stations based at synapses. Quantities constantly interact with properties to define what is known, including emotions, feelings, memories, thoughts, perceptions, sensations, regulations and so on. Simply, it is known that an emotion is being experienced, so is a feeling like pain, which is felt and known, putting knowing at the end of everything the mind does.
There is just one prioritized interaction on the mind at any moment, but there are fast and numerous interchanges with pre-prioritized. Properties have a principal spot where, if one gets there, it would have the most domination. In some cases, when there is a prioritized interaction for a quantity with the property at principal spot, there is a large degree of knowing, or experience.
This is what often happens with pain, where the property moves to the principal spot and the interaction is prioritized. Also, in pain, the quantities often use new sequences from the pain property to others, like sadness, irritation and so forth, making the experience worse. In cases where pain is receding, it is could be because the sequences became old, then the frequency and duration of the interaction—as prioritized—waned. The property was also displaced from the principal spot.
Since it is known that sound can relieve pain in humans, as well as in mice, it means that the properties of that sound acquired across mind locations, became prioritized a few times, abridging the duration and frequency for pain [interactions]. It also uses old sequences, if it is a familiar sound, making it possible to decrease the pace of continuous formation of new—negative—sequences for pain. The quantities also seek to acquire properties similar to pleasure, diverting from the dominance of pain at the principal spot. This, conceptually, is how music reduces pain.
Quantities bearing properties is the dominant form of all interactions on the mind, including what is labeled as thought. They are all in the same form, so the intensity of one may disrupt others. Pain does not stop thought when an individual is wailing, pain is in the form of thought and takes priority.
The mind often seeks to relieve pain locally. Though endorphins are involved, the mind may prioritize relieve—a property—within its mechanism. When analgesic help, they work with components of mind, against the feeling or effect.
Humans have the most properties among all organisms, with reading, writing, language and so forth. There are several possible interactions in the human mind that may be useful in tapering pain, like in other processes. For example, thirst, interest, cold, heat and so forth may not often be felt corresponding to the situation in the external. This says that the components of the mind make determinations, not the situation.
The degree with which pain may be acquired in the minds of humans and those of animals may not be the problem, but the reach for humans and animals in any moment is. The environment for animals is sometimes hostile, they however have reaches where pain becomes intolerable.
Sentience or consciousness, theoretically, can be defined as the rate at which any species can know, with a maximum value of 1, for humans. Knowing is produced by the interactions of the components of mind. Divisions of sentience are memory, feelings and reactions. Subdivisions of memory include sensations, perceptions, regulations, intelligence, creativity, thoughts, and so forth. Subdivisions of emotions include delight, anger, hurt, sadness and so on. Subdivisions of feelings include pain, thirst, cravings, cold and so forth.
For humans the total is 1. For animals close to humans the total is around 0.60, and goes down across organisms, extending to plants. In each division, for humans, the lowest possible minimum is 0.10, and the highest is 0.70. Organisms without a mind have its equivalent—or memory—that helps them to know.
Subdivisions like pain also have their values, sometimes taking the chunk of their division when prioritized. What is labeled as pain could be a property, with sides that include extremes of other feelings not labeled for pain.
The maximum for pain can be up to 0.60 in humans, while a similar fraction of it is possible in animals. The reach, however, can be comparable, including for duration and frequency. When a predator injures a prey, the reach of pain as the prey goes out, with no care or—a mind—diversion can be compared to some post-surgical pains in humans.
Pain is unpleasant, tolerance for it across species varies, but the reach can be disruptive against how some other interactions on the mind get prioritized. An approximate measure of the reach of pain, for an animal—through its sentience measure—is possible, per situation and moment.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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