Right Hemisphere and Pain

Abstract

If the basic property of protoplasm is irritability, then the basic sensory modality critical to our survival may well be pain. Surely, it is fundamental to the human condition. The arrival and interpretation of these signals are intimate to defensive and offensive gestures, emotionality, and deeply pervasive memories to insure that we minimize the creation or replication of this consequence which results from many ill-conceived activities and pursuits. Failures are evident, though, in the public media in the stiff human competition for the “Darwin Awards” and for “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” We simply do not do many of the activities that gave us pain when we last tried them. Nature simply has an effective parenting style to promote rapid acquisition of emotional responses to pain and their associated contingencies along with long duration and persistent memories. If you touch a hot stone and get burned, you may indeed be less likely to touch it the next time when the opportunity knocks.