Week 9

This week we discussed pain (algesia), analgesia, anti-analgesia, and hyperanalgesia. Also, in lab we started our Neuropsychology unit and did psychological tests to determine our functioning. It was interesting to see those tests, because I want to be a clinical psychologist and will most likely be working with tests like these someday. Also I liked the phrases such as, "He is a famous winner of dog shows."

Phantom limbs

The Sacks reading this week talked about phantom limbs, which is the phenomenon in which a person still "feels" sensations in a limb that he or she has lost. I think it would be a really interesting field of research to examine the alleviation (analgesia) of phantom limb pain. What would be really cool is if we could figure out, eventually, how exactly the mind mediates pain regulation, and use this mechanism to help alleviate phantom limb pain.

That's all for this week; short and sweet. After all, a famous Grecian/Roman philosopher once said that brevity is the most beautiful thing a person can do for himself and others. Yeah. See you next week.