The sensation of pain is actually generated in the brain, even though we usually experience it in a specific part of the body. In other words, your toe may hurt, but the “hurt” is occurring in the part of your brain map that represents your toe. This is why if we shut down your brain, through sleep, loss of consciousness, or certain drugs, the pain goes away. Or why, if we block the transmission of neural firings from your toe to your brain, the pain goes away. This might be done with a topical anesthetic or an intravenous nerve-blocking agent. Either way, no distress signal from the sensory
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