Why does the brain, despite being a very vital organ, not have any pain receptors?
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Pain is a perception that has evolved to help regulate animal behavior. Nerves help to innervate the body to create that perception of pain in more localized areas of the body and allows parts of the body that are far away from the brain to share information with other parts of the nervous system and brain quickly to make fast motor inputs like moving muscles fast when they sense burning. The brain is creating a perception of pain in the body using the nerves. Since the brain is the one creating the perception of pain in the first place, it does not need nerves to help with that task in the brain because it is those exact structures in the brain that are creating perceptions of pain in the first place, they simply do not need nerves to do that OR one could also argue that the brain IS made of nervous system tissue and therefor it is a nerve-like network that creates a perception of pain, just differently than the body.
It is like asking the dungeon master why they do not need a character sheet to operate. It is because the DM MAKES the character sheets in the first place and does not need a charcter sheet to operate because it (the brain) operates differently than the body.
Why would it? There are lots of pain receptors around the skull so you know when your head has been damaged, pain can hinder function and you don’t want to stop the brain functioning.
The same answer to why anything about the body is the way that it is.
It was not an evolutionarily beneficial trait.
If pain receptors in the brain ever evolved in our ancestors, they did not aid in survival or reproduction, and lost out to members of the species that evolved more useful mutations/traits.
There is no why anything does what it does, only “does it help me survive and make babies? if so, my babies will have that, too.”
Pain is a perception that has evolved to help regulate animal behavior. Nerves help to innervate the body to create that perception of pain in more localized areas of the body and allows parts of the body that are far away from the brain to share information with other parts of the nervous system and brain quickly to make fast motor inputs like moving muscles fast when they sense burning. The brain is creating a perception of pain in the body using the nerves. Since the brain is the one creating the perception of pain in the first place, it does not need nerves to help with that task in the brain because it is those exact structures in the brain that are creating perceptions of pain in the first place, they simply do not need nerves to do that OR one could also argue that the brain IS made of nervous system tissue and therefor it is a nerve-like network that creates a perception of pain, just differently than the body.
It is like asking the dungeon master why they do not need a character sheet to operate. It is because the DM MAKES the character sheets in the first place and does not need a charcter sheet to operate because it (the brain) operates differently than the body.
Why would it? There are lots of pain receptors around the skull so you know when your head has been damaged, pain can hinder function and you don’t want to stop the brain functioning.
The same answer to why anything about the body is the way that it is.
It was not an evolutionarily beneficial trait.
If pain receptors in the brain ever evolved in our ancestors, they did not aid in survival or reproduction, and lost out to members of the species that evolved more useful mutations/traits.
There is no why anything does what it does, only “does it help me survive and make babies? if so, my babies will have that, too.”
Because then you’d need a second brain for your brain to interpret the signals from your brain. Picture a burglar alarm system. It’s got sensors on all the doors and windows, and motion sensors to tell you when an intruder is in your house. All of those sensors report to a centralized console which then has a connection to your security console. So, when seurity console is damaged or turned off, where is it supposed to send the alert?
Because then you’d need a second brain for your brain to interpret the signals from your brain. Picture a burglar alarm system. It’s got sensors on all the doors and windows, and motion sensors to tell you when an intruder is in your house. All of those sensors report to a centralized console which then has a connection to your security console. So, when seurity console is damaged or turned off, where is it supposed to send the alert?
What benefit would that bring exactly?
You must consider that brains evolved from a centra crossroads of cells that reacted to things. This is why some animals like octopus the brains in a rather silly place. In octopus they are around the esophagus and limiting the size of them. Why? Because when they first developed, they were just there to basically control eating.
If you look at the structure of the brain, the very core parts of them are really simple and small, and handle very simple things like swalling, breathing, intenstines. These were deep inside the body of the animal. Everything just evolved on top of that. There has been no situation in which there would been need for the nervous system to have brain receptors, they aren’t supposed to be in contact with the outside works to begin with. To have them would be just waste of energy and resources.
What benefit would that bring exactly?
You must consider that brains evolved from a centra crossroads of cells that reacted to things. This is why some animals like octopus the brains in a rather silly place. In octopus they are around the esophagus and limiting the size of them. Why? Because when they first developed, they were just there to basically control eating.
If you look at the structure of the brain, the very core parts of them are really simple and small, and handle very simple things like swalling, breathing, intenstines. These were deep inside the body of the animal. Everything just evolved on top of that. There has been no situation in which there would been need for the nervous system to have brain receptors, they aren’t supposed to be in contact with the outside works to begin with. To have them would be just waste of energy and resources.
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