Pain tolerance  Pain tolerance is the maximum level of pain that a person is able to tolerate. Pain tolerance is distinct from pain threshold (the point at which pain begins to be felt). The perception of pain that goes in to pain tolerance has two major components. First is the biological component—the headache or skin prickling that activates pain receptors. Second is the brain’s perception of pain—how much focus is spent paying attention to or ignoring the pain. The brain’s perception of pain is a response to signals from pain receptors that sensed the pain in the first place. Clinical studies by the journal of "Psychosomatic Medicine" found that "men had higher pain thresholds and tolerances and lower pain ratings than women" when they are exposed to cold pressor pain. The study asked participants to submerge their hands in ice water (the cold pressor pain procedure) and told members of the experimental group (as opposed to the control group) that they would be compensated financially for keeping their hand submerged. Suggested explanations for this difference include, "men are more motivated to tolerate and suppress expressions of pain because of the masculine gender role, whereas the feminine gender role encourages pain expression and produces lower motivation to tolerate pain among women." A similar study published in the same books focused on the effects of having individuals perform the ice water procedure if they are accompanied by another participant. Their results revealed, "Participants in the active support and passive support conditions reported less pain than participants in the alone and interaction conditions, regardless of whether they were paired with a friend or stranger. These data suggest that the presence of an individual who provides passive or active support reduces experimental pain." Age and pain tolerance are relevant especially in the elderly because if their pain is detected too late, they run the risk of greater injury or delayed treatment of disease. However, current knowledge shows that pain tolerance does not show substantial change with age. Only pain threshold shows an effect: it increases with age. In laboratory studies black people have shown a higher pain tolerance in comparison to white people.. However, other studies have shown that white people possess higher pain tolerance when compared to African American and Hispanic minorities. It is inconclusive whether pain tolerance differs by ethnicity. Patients with chronic mood disorders show an increased sensitivity to pain. This is not surprising because many of the brain pathways involved in depression are also involved in pain. These disorders weaken the cognitive aspect of pain and thus lower pain tolerance. These effects are worse in unipolar compared to bipolar disorders, although both perceive pain significantly worse than people without a mood disorder.