Friday, April 16, 2010

Kiss the Boo-Boo Phenomenon



I am currently studying neuroanatomy and neurophysiology and came across a phenomenon that I thought was extremely interesting.

Basically we call it the "Kiss the Boo-Boo Phenomenon". Although this is not the technical term for it (it is actually called the Gate Theory to Pain), but I thought that it was interesting.

There is actually a reason why Mum's and Dad's kiss a 'boo-boo' of a child. The light touch of a kiss actually travels down nerve fibers that relay the information faster than the pain fibers. So the light touch of a kiss actually reaches the brain before the pain signal does, and essentially blocks out the pain signal, leaving the child feeling only the light touch signal.

Pretty neat!

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