Why do our stomachs (organs) have selective sensations, such as pain?

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Typically people do not ‘feel’ sensations in their stomach. Such as the food moving around, etc. Why when we have food poisoning or flu do we suddenly feel pain? Our organs only have pain receptors? All other feelings are null?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The answer to this question depends on your definition of ‘feel’. The gastrointenstinal tract can certainly ‘feel’ sesations such as strech (eg. upon eating food, or after food moves from a particular region of intestine to another) and has reflexes to deal with such sensations (eg. the gastrocolic reflex can promote defecation after a meal, or the colonocolic reflex which promotes relaxation of a more distal section of intestine upon being streched).

As pointed out before, the foreceful evacuation of bowel contents can cause cramping and pain in muscles, which leads to the sensation of pain expereinced in food poisoning, etc.

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