Why do we feel pain?
Ouch Alarm
Why do we feel pain?
You stub your toe on the coffee table and — OW! — suddenly your whole world is that throbbing spot on your foot. Why does your body do this to you? Why can't you just bounce off furniture like a cartoon character and keep walking?
Pain is your body's alarm system. When something harmful touches you — a hot stove, a sharp thorn, a whack from a table — special sensors in your skin wake up and shout a message to your brain. These sensors are called nociceptors, which is just a fancy word for "danger detectors." They only fire when something could actually hurt you.
