The Gate Theory of Pain Revisited: Modeling Different Pain Conditions with a Parsimonious Neurocomputational Model

Figure 13

Different pain conditions for the different combinations of sensory and mechanoreceptor inputs according to the results of the gate circuit computer model. When the sensory input intensity (normalized firing rate) is higher than the nociceptive input intensity (below the diagonal), the circuit behaves in a “normal pain” mode. Above the diagonal, nociceptive input intensity is higher than the sensory input intensity. In this condition, the parameters of the gate circuit evolve so that pain is triggered in abnormal situations generating dysesthesia. When sensory and/or nociceptive inputs are very low, the gate circuit parameters evolve to produce wind-up pain. Phantom pain is included in this case as an extreme situation. Finally, when either nociceptive or mechanoreceptor stimulus is extremely high, wind-down pain is produced (see Figure 14).