Q: How does Hurt and Pain impact the brain?

A: Sensory data is sent to the brain via the nervous system and is decoded in the brain. The data travels along the nerve pathways as nerve impulses and at differing speeds. Signals such as the ones for muscle position, travel on extra-fast nerve impulses at speeds of up to 390 feet per second. Pressure signals related to touch physical travel about 250 feet per second. Signals related to physical injury travel even more slowly, at the rate of only about two feet per second. You stub your toe, the brain decodes the pressure signals first, followed rapidly by the extreme physical discomfort caused by the injury.

Social hurt including loss, rejection, and other adverse experiences, likely arise in the brain itself. The amygdala registers the perceived affront and emotions are triggered in the brain’s limbic or mammalian layer. The emotion may be anger, fear, or sadness and the emotions may even change or rotate rapidly. However, there can be overlap between regions that decode physical pain versus emotions-social hurt.

The prefrontal cortex in the 3rd brain layer now assesses the experience and comes to a conclusion. Feelings is the label for the brain’s conclusion: its analysis of what the experience really means, how important and impactful the experience is for you--and the weight you give to it. You can decide whether you want to keep experiencing that feeling or choose to feel something else. To change the way you feel, you must change the way you think because feelings always follow thoughts. You also decide the amount of time, energy, and weight, you want to devote to the episode or situation.