Final answer:
Stress-induced analgesia is the reduction in pain sensation experienced by soldiers in battle until after the stress has subsided, part of the body's survival mechanism. It is closely related to PTSD, a complex psychological trauma response seen in historical wars. The delay in pain perception during stress is due to the neural processing pathways and time taken for sensations to reach the brain.
Step-by-step explanation:
The story of soldiers in battle who did not feel painful wounds until the stress was over describes a damping of pain sensations known as stress-induced analgesia. This phenomenon is part of the body's natural survival response, allowing an individual to maintain function during a threatening situation.
In the context of military history, this concept can be intertwined with psychological impacts of war such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). While physical injuries in wars like World War I and the Vietnam War could be addressed, the psychological trauma was more complex, resulting in conditions like shell shock and combat fatigue, now all understood as manifestations of PTSD. It was noticed that the intense psychological stress, not just the physical shelling, induced these conditions. Moreover, the military's response to such psychological trauma has evolved over time, from a lack of recognition to more modern understanding and treatment approaches.
The response to stress and its impact on perceiving pain is related to the function of the nervous system and the delay in pain perception due to the time it takes for the sensations to travel to the cerebral cortex. The propagation of the axon potential plays a role in this delay. In addition, chronic pain is often associated with an ongoing immune response, even after physical wounds have healed, involving chemical messengers and cells like macrophages that contribute to the sensation of pain.