Micro science: why does my little toe hurt so much when I stub it?

Professor Chantal Berna Renella, head of the Centre for Integrative and Complementary Medicine and affiliated with the Centre dʹantalgie at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, explains, among other things, why stubbing your little toe is so unpleasant, what pain is used for, why it is not always felt with the same intensity and why being insensitive to physical pain can be dangerous.