You're right, that's known as nociceptive pain, the other is known as neuropathic pain, here's a nice piece, it's moving on the knowledge that these types of pa

You're right, that's known as nociceptive pain, the other is known as neuropathic pain, here's a nice piece, it's moving on the knowledge that these types of pain, emotional and physical if you like, cause a similar area of the brain to 'light up' (http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract), and how advances are allowing more fine grain observation of these reactions http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-the-brain/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-th... Although to be a pedant, tooth drilling is apparently not quite nociceptive as it's the nerve being vibrated that causes an intense sensation that's easy to interpret as 'pain', I try and think about fireworks instead...