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

  1. spine
  2. harmful
  3. experience
  4. specialized
  5. typically
  6. nervous
  7. mechanical
  8. 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

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
electrical signals 2
nerve fibers 2
influencing nociception 2

Important Words

  1. activated
  2. avoid
  3. biological
  4. body
  5. brain
  6. called
  7. chemical
  8. damage
  9. decides
  10. detect
  11. electrical
  12. endings
  13. experience
  14. factors
  15. harmful
  16. helps
  17. importance
  18. influence
  19. injury
  20. mechanical
  21. nerve
  22. nervous
  23. nociception
  24. pain
  25. part
  26. phenomena
  27. potentially
  28. process
  29. produces
  30. protection
  31. protective
  32. response
  33. sensors
  34. set
  35. shoot
  36. signals
  37. specialized
  38. spine
  39. stimuli
  40. thermal
  41. threats
  42. typically
  43. weighs