Torture to uncover brain secrets

[iGav]

to see if faith helps ease the pain.

rinky dink link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4167565.stm)

thoughts?

[blackfox]

How do you market this for volunteers? What kind of compensation do they get? "we need to hurt you for science" seems a poor slogan...

Seems to me to be a rather sloppy way of going about things, as well as a vague hypothesis.

Hell, if I was distracted by something shiny, I would probably not notice the pain as much and that shiny thing could be a crucifix or a new MacMini, doesn't matter as long as it diverts my attention.

I still don't look at the site when I get a shot a the Doctor's office for the same reason.

I can't help but think some scientists just want to torture some religious folks so as to return the favor.

meh.

[rainman::|:|]

Pain, or rather one's perception of pain, is highly influenceable. It seems like the brain can be tricked into ignoring the pain signals, much like hypnosis. Religion is probably part self-hypnosis, part placebo, and part distraction in this case, so I would imagine that it could be effective. As much as thinking of sculpture ideas helps me manage pain (my back is a little screwed up, so some days it really hurts).

[joepunk]

Ok, after five server busy attempts I can finally post.

Powerbook users should be part of the study. I think we could handle the heat and we would not be letting anyone else torture us as it is our own doing. And we would be better distracted from the pain as we read/post at MR.

[wdlove]

This sounds like an interesting study. Just wondering about the Hippocratic oath, first do no harm. The process if inflicting the pain seems to be innocent enough, but it will still be inflicting pain. I would want to know more details before I would even consider volunteering.

[neut]

they'll prolly just get a bunch of s&m freaks knocking on their doors. :p

reminds me of the experiments the machines ran on humans in the matrix ...

what year is it?


peace.

[bartelby]

How much they paying?

[chanoc]

Scientists torturing theists? Giggle, giggle, the revenge of Darwin and Sagan. :D