full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Elliot Krane: The mystery of chronic pain
Unscramble the Blue Letters
But the situation, of course, in the human body is far more complicated than that. Instead of it being the case that that jucntoin box in the spinal cord is just simple where one nerve connects with the next nerve by relsianeg these little borwn packets of chemical information called nriermsntatoreuts in a lniear one-on-one fosahin, in fact, what happens is the neurotransmitters spill out in three dimensions — laterally, vertically, up and down in the spinal cord — and they start interacting with other adjacent cells. These clles, called glial cells, were once thought to be unimportant structural elements of the spinal cord that did nothing more than hold all the important things together, like the nerves. But it turns out the glial cells have a vital role in the modulation, amplification and, in the case of pain, the distortion of sensory experiences. These glial cells become acevtiatd. Their DNA starts to sznsheytie new proteins, which spill out and interact with adjacent nerves, and they srtat releasing their neurotransmitters, and those neurotransmitters spill out and activate adjacent glial cells, and so on and so forth, until what we have is a positive feedback loop.
Open Cloze
But the situation, of course, in the human body is far more complicated than that. Instead of it being the case that that ________ box in the spinal cord is just simple where one nerve connects with the next nerve by _________ these little _____ packets of chemical information called _________________ in a ______ one-on-one _______, in fact, what happens is the neurotransmitters spill out in three dimensions — laterally, vertically, up and down in the spinal cord — and they start interacting with other adjacent cells. These _____, called glial cells, were once thought to be unimportant structural elements of the spinal cord that did nothing more than hold all the important things together, like the nerves. But it turns out the glial cells have a vital role in the modulation, amplification and, in the case of pain, the distortion of sensory experiences. These glial cells become _________. Their DNA starts to __________ new proteins, which spill out and interact with adjacent nerves, and they _____ releasing their neurotransmitters, and those neurotransmitters spill out and activate adjacent glial cells, and so on and so forth, until what we have is a positive feedback loop.
Solution
- activated
- fashion
- junction
- cells
- releasing
- start
- brown
- neurotransmitters
- linear
- synthesize
Original Text
But the situation, of course, in the human body is far more complicated than that. Instead of it being the case that that junction box in the spinal cord is just simple where one nerve connects with the next nerve by releasing these little brown packets of chemical information called neurotransmitters in a linear one-on-one fashion, in fact, what happens is the neurotransmitters spill out in three dimensions — laterally, vertically, up and down in the spinal cord — and they start interacting with other adjacent cells. These cells, called glial cells, were once thought to be unimportant structural elements of the spinal cord that did nothing more than hold all the important things together, like the nerves. But it turns out the glial cells have a vital role in the modulation, amplification and, in the case of pain, the distortion of sensory experiences. These glial cells become activated. Their DNA starts to synthesize new proteins, which spill out and interact with adjacent nerves, and they start releasing their neurotransmitters, and those neurotransmitters spill out and activate adjacent glial cells, and so on and so forth, until what we have is a positive feedback loop.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
nervous system |
7 |
junction box |
4 |
spinal cord |
4 |
chronic pain |
3 |
glial cells |
3 |
worst part |
2 |
neurotransmitters spill |
2 |
sensory experiences |
2 |
Important Words
- activate
- activated
- adjacent
- amplification
- body
- box
- brown
- called
- case
- cells
- chemical
- complicated
- connects
- cord
- dimensions
- distortion
- dna
- elements
- experiences
- fact
- fashion
- feedback
- glial
- hold
- human
- important
- information
- interact
- interacting
- junction
- laterally
- linear
- loop
- modulation
- nerve
- nerves
- neurotransmitters
- packets
- pain
- positive
- proteins
- releasing
- role
- sensory
- simple
- situation
- spill
- spinal
- start
- starts
- structural
- synthesize
- thought
- turns
- unimportant
- vertically
- vital