Nice article on pain. I especially liked the distinction of pain and nocioception.

“Pain” is a good way to illustrate the difference between sensory signals and perception. Pain is a perception, while, as you point out, nocioceptors transmit sensory signals (usually of tissue damage). The perception of pain occurs in the cerebral cortex. This provides a simple model of why you can feel pain (activation of the pain network in cortex) while there are no nocioceptors activated and you can have activity in nocioceptors without the perception of pain. While pain and nocioception are generally linked, they need not be.