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In the human brain, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex that resembles a "collar" surrounding the frontal part of the corpus callosum. It consists of Brodmann areas 24, 32, and 33.
Ronald Melzack was a Canadian psychologist and professor of psychology at McGill University. In 1965, he and Patrick David Wall revolutionized pain research by introducing the gate control theory of pain. In 1968, Melzack published an extension of the gate control theory, in which he asserted that pain is subjective and multidimensional because several parts of the brain contribute to it at the same time. During the mid-1970s, he developed the McGill Pain Questionnaire and became a founding member of the International Association for the Study of Pain. He also became the founding editor of Wall & Melzack's Textbook of Pain
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Interoception is contemporarily defined as the sense of the internal state of the body. This can be both conscious and non-conscious. It encompasses the brain's process of integrating signals relayed from the body into specific subregions—like the brainstem, thalamus, insula, somatosensory, and anterior cingulate cortex—allowing for a nuanced representation of the physiological state of the body. This is important for maintaining homeostatic conditions in the body and, potentially, aiding in self-awareness.
Social cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the biological processes underpinning social cognition. Specifically, it uses the tools of neuroscience to study "the mental mechanisms that create, frame, regulate, and respond to our experience of the social world". Social cognitive neuroscience uses the epistemological foundations of cognitive neuroscience, and is closely related to social neuroscience. Social cognitive neuroscience employs human neuroimaging, typically using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Human brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct-current stimulation are also used. In nonhuman animals, direct electrophysiological recordings and electrical stimulation of single cells and neuronal populations are utilized for investigating lower-level social cognitive processes.
References
- 1 2 Chapman, C. Richard (1996). "Neuromatrix theory". Pain Forum . 5 (2): 139–142. doi:10.1016/S1082-3174(96)80051-1.
- ↑ Melzack, Ronald (1990). "Phantom limbs and the concept of a neuromatrix". Trends in Neurosciences . 13 (3): 88–92. doi:10.1016/0166-2236(90)90179-E. PMID 1691874. S2CID 8639462.
- ↑ Fuchs, Perry N.; Peng, Yuan Bo; Boyette-Davis, Jessica A.; Uhelski, Megan L. (5 May 2014). "The anterior cingulate cortex and pain processing". Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience . 8: 35. doi:10.3389/fnint.2014.00035. PMC 4017137 . PMID 24829554.
A number of different lines of evidence indicate that the ACC is a critical brain region that is part of the neuromatrix involved in pain processing