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A noxious stimulus is a stimulus strong enough to threaten the body’s integrity. Noxious stimulation induces peripheral afferents responsible for transducing pain , throughout the nervous system of an organism.
The ability to perceive noxious stimuli is a prerequisite for nociception, which itself is a prerequisite for nociceptive pain. A noxious stimulus has been seen to drives nocifensive behavioral responses, which are responses to noxious or painful stimuli. These include reflexive, escape behaviors, to avoid harm to an organism's body.
Because of rare genetic conditions that inhibit the ability to perceive physical pain, such as congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis , noxious stimulation does not invariably lead to tissue damage.
Noxious stimuli can either be mechanical , chemical , or thermal.