Neuropathy Knowledge: What Is A Nociceptor?

Today's post from sciencedaily.com (see link below) is the first part of a series from the same source providing readers with explanations and information about many of the medical terms they hear when researching neuropathy, or sitting in the doctor's surgery and talking about it. Today it explains the word 'Nociceptor' and gives related definitions of other words associated with nociception. Worth following the links if you have the time.

Nociceptor
Science Daily via Wikipedia

A nociceptor is a sensory receptor that sends signals that cause the perception of pain in response to potentially damaging stimulus.

Nociceptors are the nerve endings responsible for nociception, one of the two types of persistent pain (the other, neuropathic pain, occurs when nerves in the central or peripheral nervous system are damaged).

For more information about the topic Nociceptor, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:


Pain — Pain's an unpleasant sensation which may be associated with actual or potential tissue damage and which may have physical and emotional components. ... read more


Sensory neuron — Sensory neurons are nerve cells within the nervous system responsible for converting external stimuli from the organism's environment into internal ... read more


Gate control theory of pain — The gate control theory of pain, put forward by Ron Melzack and Patrick Wall in 1962, is the idea that physical pain is not a direct result of ... read more


Sensory system — A sensory system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory receptors, ... read more


Sympathetic nervous system — The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is part of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which also includes the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The ... read more


Pupillary reflex — In medicine, the pupillary reflex or pupillary light reflex, is the reduction of pupil size in response to light. It is a normal response and ... read more


Motor neuron — In vertebrates, motor neurons (also called motoneurons) are efferent neurons that originate in the spinal cord and synapse with muscle fibers to ... read more


Olfaction — Olfaction, the sense of odor (smell), is the detection of chemicals dissolved in air (or in water, by animals that live under water). In vertebrates ... read more


Nervous system — The nervous system of an animal coordinates the activity of the muscles, monitors the organs, constructs and also stops input from the senses, and ... read more

Chemical synapse — Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which cells of the nervous system signal to one another and to non-neuronal cells such as muscles

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/n/nociceptor.htm