How long would it take if you received constant electric shocks to your hands? 如果你的手被持续电击，你会用多久完成它？

　　Longer, right? Because the pain would distract you from the task. 更长的时间，是不是？因为痛苦让你从工作中分神。

　　Well, maybe not; it depends on how you handle pain. 其实，也许不是；这取决于你如何控制疼痛。

　　Some people are distracted by pain. 疼痛使有些人分心。

　　It takes them longer to complete a task, and they do it less well. 让他们花更长的时间去完成工作，并完成得没有那么好。

　　Other people use tasks to distract themselves from pain, 还有一些人通过工作转移注意力，忘记疼痛，

　　and those people actually do the task faster and better when they're in pain than when they're not. 他们在疼痛的时候比没有疼痛的时候工作得更快更好。

　　Some people can just send their mind wandering to distract themselves from pain. 一些人可以转换思维去转移对疼痛的感知。

　　How can different people be subjected to the exact same painful stimulus and yet experience the pain so differently? 为什么不同的人在受到相同的疼痛刺激时感受的疼痛程度不同？

　　And why does this matter? 它为什么有意义呢？

　　First of all, what is pain? 首先，什么是疼痛？

　　Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, associated with actual or potential tissue damage. 疼痛是个不愉悦的感知和情感经历，与实际或潜在的组织损伤有关。

　　Pain is something we experience, so it's best measured by what you say it is. 疼痛是我们经历的东西，所以最好用你所说的来衡量。

　　Pain has an intensity; you can describe it on a scale from zero, no pain, to ten, the most pain imaginable. 疼痛有强度；你可以把它用刻度表示出来，从零级没有疼痛到十级最疼。

　　But pain also has a character, like sharp, dull, burning, or aching. 不过疼痛是有特点的，比如尖锐的、迟钝的、灼烧的或心痛的。

　　What exactly creates these perceptions of pain? 到底是什么产生了疼痛的感觉呢？

　　Well, when you get hurt, special tissue damage-sensing nerve cells, called nociceptors, 其实，当你受伤时，特殊组织损伤敏感神经细胞，也叫伤害感受器，

　　fire and send signals to the spinal cord and then up to the brain. 触动并发送信号到脊髓，再传送到大脑。

　　Processing work gets done by cells called neurons and glia. 这个过程由神经元与神经胶质完成。

　　This is your Grey matter. 这就是你的灰质。

　　And brain superhighways carry information as electrical impulses from one area to another. 并且脑路携带信息就像电子脉冲一样从一个区域到另一个。

　　This is your white matter. 这就是白质。

　　The superhighway that carries pain information from the spinal cord to the brain is our sensing pathway 这个携带疼痛信息从神经元到大脑的脑路是我们的感觉通道，它到皮质层结束，

　　that ends in the cortex, a part of the brain that decides what to do with the pain signal. 皮质层是决定如何处理疼痛信号的脑部。

　　Another system of interconnected brain cells called the salience network decides what to pay attention to. 另外一个相互关联的脑细胞系统叫做突显网络，它决定需要注意什么。

　　Since pain can have serious consequences, the pain signal immediately activates the salience network. 因为疼痛可能会有严重的后果，疼痛信号会立刻激发突显网络。

　　Now, you're paying attention. 现在，你就会注意到疼痛了。

　　The brain also responds to the pain and has to cope with these pain signals. 大脑也会回应疼痛并处理这些疼痛信号。

　　So, motor pathways are activated to take your hand off a hot stove, for example. 因此，运动元神经被激发，比如让你把手从火炉上移开。