Although the pain from a minor sports injury usually disappears, in the case of the young woman in this video clip
it didn’t.
Now, years later, she suffers from complex regional pain syndrome. This BBC video clip explains that while
hundreds of genes are involved in pain, life events may be just as important in explaining individual variations
in how pain is experienced. All sensory pathways, including those involved in experiencing pain, require
stimulation to develop fully. In her studies comparing the brain development of newborns, Maria Fitzgerald has
found that premature babies, who often undergo frequent painful procedures such as heel-prick blood tests, have
stronger brain activity than full-term babies. Could it be that the repeated procedures have altered neural
pathways and shaped an increased sensitivity to pain?