full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Joshua W. Pate: The mysterious science of pain
Unscramble the Blue Letters
What’s going on here? There are actually two phenomena at play: the experience of pain, and a biological process called nociception. Nociception is part of the nveorus system’s pcvetitroe response to harmful or potentially hfaumrl stimuli. Sensors in sealizipced nerve endings detect mhaineccal, thermal, and chemical threats. If enough sensors are activated, electrical signals shoot up the nerve to the snpie and on to the brain. The brain weighs the importance of these signals and produces pain if it decides the body needs protection. tlypcliay, pain helps the body avoid further injury or damage. But there are a whole set of factors besides nociception that can influence the eixpnecere of pain— and make pain less useful.
Open Cloze
What’s going on here? There are actually two phenomena at play: the experience of pain, and a biological process called nociception. Nociception is part of the _______ system’s __________ response to harmful or potentially _______ stimuli. Sensors in ___________ nerve endings detect __________, thermal, and chemical threats. If enough sensors are activated, electrical signals shoot up the nerve to the _____ and on to the brain. The brain weighs the importance of these signals and produces pain if it decides the body needs protection. _________, pain helps the body avoid further injury or damage. But there are a whole set of factors besides nociception that can influence the __________ of pain— and make pain less useful.
Solution
- spine
- harmful
- experience
- specialized
- typically
- nervous
- mechanical
- protective
Original Text
What’s going on here? There are actually two phenomena at play: the experience of pain, and a biological process called nociception. Nociception is part of the nervous system’s protective response to harmful or potentially harmful stimuli. Sensors in specialized nerve endings detect mechanical, thermal, and chemical threats. If enough sensors are activated, electrical signals shoot up the nerve to the spine and on to the brain. The brain weighs the importance of these signals and produces pain if it decides the body needs protection. Typically, pain helps the body avoid further injury or damage. But there are a whole set of factors besides nociception that can influence the experience of pain— and make pain less useful.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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electrical signals |
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nerve fibers |
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influencing nociception |
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Important Words
- activated
- avoid
- biological
- body
- brain
- called
- chemical
- damage
- decides
- detect
- electrical
- endings
- experience
- factors
- harmful
- helps
- importance
- influence
- injury
- mechanical
- nerve
- nervous
- nociception
- pain
- part
- phenomena
- potentially
- process
- produces
- protection
- protective
- response
- sensors
- set
- shoot
- signals
- specialized
- spine
- stimuli
- thermal
- threats
- typically
- weighs