Why does a man who’s having a heart attack often feel the pain shooting down his

Question

Why does a man who’s having a heart attack often feel the pain shooting down his arm (referred pain)? pleases explain.

a. A heart attack is so stressful that the hormones in the man confuse his brain.

b. Pain information from the heart is sent to the arm before it is sent to the spinal cord.

c. Pain information from the heart is sent to the same part of the primary somatosensory cortex as pain information from the skin of the arm.

d. Pain in formation from the heart synapses on the same cells in the spinal cord as pain information from the skin of the arm.

Explanation / Answer

d. Pain in formation from the heart synapses on the same cells in the spinal cord as pain information from the skin of the arm.

Referred pain is a sensory experience (painful stimulus) perceived by a referred or remote area, when the actual pain arises at another area. Usually in clinical diagnosis, referred pain at one area indicates the abnormality of some other functional organ.

For example, in angina pectoris (pain in chest region due to the decreased oxygen supply to the cardiac muscle), the pain originates at the chest region and spread to the shoulder and left arm. Pain of left arm is a sharp indication of cardiac problems.

The phenomenon of projection explains the mechanism of referred pain, in which the brain refers sensations to their usual point of stimulation. This involves the convergence of nerve fibres of the regions of low sensory input and the regions of high sensory input, at the same levels of spinal cord.

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