A soldier whose best friend has been seriously injured in battle carries the wounded man to safety
After he reaches the medics, he realizes that he, too, is wounded. How could the soldier have carried his friend to safety without noticing the pain from his own wound?
What will be an ideal response?
A good answer will include the following key points:
• Endorphins are neuromodulators that have effects similar to those of natural opiates such as heroin; that is, they reduce pain and promote pleasure.
• Endorphin levels shoot up when an animal or a person is afraid or under stress.
• By making pain bearable in such situations, endorphins give a species an evolutionary advantage.
• When an organism is threatened, it needs to do something fast, but pain can interfere with action: a soldier
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Which is not a zero-sum game?
(a) lovemaking (b) the chooser - cutter example (c) a poker game, with respect to the money won and lost (d) a coin toss in which one person wins and the other loses depending on whether the coin comes up heads or tails (e) all of the above
Messages carried by large, fast nerve fibers can prevent the slower, "reminding system" pain from reaching the brain by
a. closing the spinal gate directly. b. passing through the pain gate and on to a central biasing system. c. inhibiting the production of endorphins. d. causing rapid sensory adaptation.