Looking for resources on nerve impulses.

[Tesla_pasta]

Hi everybody!

I just got involved in some research and I need some help finding some information to base a hypothesis on. I need to find some info on how nerve signals around your body (especially from pain) are different from nerve signals from your eyes to your brain. Any help the community can give is much appreciated!

 

For those who are curious, the research is for part of the IB diploma requirements.

[Tr0x]

Hi everybody!

I just got involved in some research and I need some help finding some information to base a hypothesis on. I need to find some info on how nerve signals around your body (especially from pain) are different from nerve signals from your eyes to your brain. Any help the community can give is much appreciated!

 

For those who are curious, the research is for part of the IB diploma requirements.

 

Any basic neuroscience or possibly physiology text book would be a great resource.

 

If by "nerve impulses/signals" do you mean the actual electrochemical process of relaying information through a neuron (i.e. action potentials)? Or, is it in a more general sense?

 

Remembering back a few years to intro neuroscience: sensing pain and sensing light are very different processes, with a few similarities. As far as neurotransmitters from the eyes to the brain, they're pretty similar to any other signal. The neurotransmitter glutamate acts to pass on "positive" information (i.e. activation) while acetylcholine acts generally as an inhibitor, to pass on "negative" information (i.e. inhibition). The major difference with sensing light compared to pain, is that when light hits the retina, some nerves inside are actually inhibited which relays "negative" information, telling the brain the eye senses light (or to think of it another way, these neurons are active in the dark, telling the brain the eyes don't sense light!). Pain, however, is sensed through "positive" information, where nerves are activated (not inhibited) when you come into contact with something hurtful. (please be aware that this is a huge over-simplification, and there are many other neurotransmitters and processes at work!)

 

Another difference between how pain is sensed, and light, is the structure of the neurons. I vaguely remember that there are several different types of pain sensing neurons, that act at different rates (i.e. so you feel an initial sharp pain, followed by a dull ache if an area is injured). The neurons involved in sensing light are also diverse, meaning there are many specialized types.

 

Hopefully that gives you somewhere to start...again I'd recommend a neuroscience text book rather than info gathered from here!

[CharonY]

While I am aware that this is just meant as a simplification, however I would be careful about using the the terms positive or negative information. It is simpler and more accurate to think about the signal in terms of action potential frequency (i.e. light reduces the frequency that the subsequent neurons fire).