本期节目探讨了痛感和愉悦感在身心中的产生机制以及控制强度的方法。节目深入研究了针灸、催眠和定向按压等行为工具的科学原理，揭示了它们如何激活神经回路来调节我们对疼痛或愉悦的体验。同时，还讨论了全身疼痛、疼痛“综合症”以及新型止痛化合物，如乙酰左旋肉碱、SAMe和胍丁胺。此外，节目还探讨了疼痛系统的神经可塑性以及视觉感知在疼痛调节中的关键作用。最后，节目还阐述了多巴胺、血清素和催产素与唤醒、愉悦和疼痛之间的联系，并提供了相应的科学原理和实践方法。

🧠 痛感与愉悦的感知： 痛感和愉悦感不仅是主观体验，还与特定的皮肤感受器和大脑区域密切相关。身体不同部位对触觉的感知存在差异，例如手、脚、唇和生殖器区域在脑部皮层中占有更大的代表区域，使得这些区域的触觉更加敏感。神经通路和大脑对这些信号的处理方式直接影响我们对疼痛和愉悦的感受。

🌡️ 疼痛调控的多种方法： 节目中介绍了多种调控疼痛的方法，包括冷水浸泡和热疗等物理刺激。冷感是相对的，而热感是绝对的，了解这些差异有助于我们更好地利用这些方法来管理疼痛。此外，针灸、催眠和定向按压等行为工具通过激活特定的神经回路来调节疼痛感。

💊 新型止痛化合物： 节目还探讨了一些新型止痛化合物，如乙酰左旋肉碱、SAMe和胍丁胺。这些化合物通过不同的机制来减轻疼痛，为疼痛管理提供了新的选择。同时，节目还强调了疼痛系统的神经可塑性，指出视觉感知在疼痛调节中起着关键作用，通过改变视觉输入可以影响我们对疼痛的体验。

❤️ 愉悦与神经递质： 愉悦感与多巴胺、血清素和催产素等神经递质密切相关。多巴胺在动机和愉悦中起着重要作用，而血清素和催产素则与社交和情感联系有关。了解这些神经递质的作用机制有助于我们更好地理解愉悦的产生，并利用这些知识来提高生活质量。

This episode I discuss our sense of pain and pleasure: where and how they each arise in our mind and body and various ways to control their intensity. I discuss the science of behavioral tools like acupuncture and hypnosis and directed pressure, including the neural circuits they each activate to modulate our experience of pain or pleasure. I also discuss whole body pain, pain "syndromes" and novel pain relief compounds such as Acetyl-L-Carnitine, SAMe and Agmatine. I discuss neuroplasticity of the pain system and the key role that visual perception plays in pain modulation. Finally, I address the link between dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, with arousal, pleasure and pain. As always, both basic science and various protocols are described.

Note: The description of the dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) was intentionally simplified and does not include mention of dorsal horn spinal relay neurons, etc. For an excellent full text review of this anatomy and circuits for touch sensing, please see: https://bit.ly/3jH9CPf

Read the full show notes for this episode at hubermanlab.com.

Thank you to our sponsors

AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman

LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab

Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman

Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman

Timestamps

00:00:00 Skin, Pain, Pleasure  

00:01:50 Protocol 1: Maximizing Motivation (with Dopamine & Pleasure)  

00:07:29 Sponsors: AG1, LMNT & Waking Up

00:12:04 Pleasure & Pain, & Skin Sensors  

00:18:13 Sensing Touch with Your Brain: Magnification of Feet, Hands, Lips, Face, Genitals  

00:22:16 Two-Point Discrimination, Dermatomes  

00:28:11 Thoughts & Genes That Make Physical Pain Worse  

00:33:45 Expectations, Anxiety, & Pain Threshold  

00:40:27 Protocol 2: Cold Sensing Is Relative; Getting Into Cold Water  

00:45:22 Protocol 3: Heat Is Absolute  

00:48:10 Injury & Pain  

00:52:04 Protocol 4: Plasticity of Pain: Key Role of Vision  

00:58:08 Sensing Disparate Body Parts As Merged  

01:01:00 Pain “Syndromes”, Psychogenic Fever, “Psychosomatics”  

01:04:40 Fibromyalgia, Naltrexone, Protocol 5: Acetyl-L-Carnitine  

01:12:24 Protocol 6: Agmatine, S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), L-5-Methyltetrahydrofolate  

01:17:27 Acupuncture: Mechanism, Non-Responders, Itch & Inflammation  

01:28:20 Laser Photobiomodulation, Protocol 7: Hypnosis (reveri.com)  

01:30:00 Protocol 8: Pressure-Based Pain Relief, “Gate Theory of Pain (Relief)”  

01:37:53 Redheads & Pain Thresholds, Endogenous Opioids  

01:44:02 Protocol 8: Love & Pain, Dopamine  

01:49:23 Pleasure & Reproduction, Dopamine & Serotonin, Oxytocin  

01:51:40 Protocol 9: PEA, L-Phenylalanine (Precursor to Tyrosine)  

01:55:40 Contextual Control of Pleasure by Autonomic Arousal, Dopamine Baselines  

01:59:40 Pleasure-Pain Balance  

02:01:24 Protocol 10: Controlling Pleasure, Dopamine & Motivation Over Time  

02:06:40 Protocol 11: Immediate, Non-Goal-Directed Pleasure, PAG  

02:08:40 Direction of Touch: Pleasure Versus Pain, Arousal & Touch “Sensitivity”  

02:13:00 Synthesis & How to Conceptualize Pain and Pleasure, Support  

Disclaimer & Disclosures