Brain Anticipates Taste And Shifts Gears, Study Shows (Placebo effects)

[HuckleB]

Great (taste) Expectations: Brain Anticipates Taste And Shifts Gears, Study Shows:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=38186

"As the prism of our senses, the human brain has ways of refracting sensory input in defiance of reality.

This is seen, for example, in the placebo effect, when simple sugar pills or inert salves taken by unwitting subjects are seen to ease pain or have some other beneficial physiological effect. How the brain processes this faked input and prompts the body to respond is largely a mystery of neuroscience.

Now, however, scientists have begun to peel back some of the neurological secrets of this remarkable phenomenon and show how the brain can be rewired in anticipation of sensory input to respond in prescribed ways. Writing in the current issue (March 1, 2006) of the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists reports the results of experiments that portray the brain in action as it is duped.

The new work, conducted by a team led by UW-Madison assistant professor of psychology and psychiatry Jack B. Nitschke, tested the ability of the human brain to mitigate foul taste through a ruse of anticipation. The work, conducted at the UW-Madison Waisman Center using state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques and distasteful concoctions of quinine on a cohort of college students, reveals in detail how the brain responds to a manipulation intended to mitigate an unpleasant experience.

..."

[Salviati]

1. By "distasteful concoctions of quinine"

I assume they mean a Gin and Tonic without the lime...
:spray:

[Meldread]

2. This no doubt answers the question of "The Power of Prayer."

I'm sure we've all met or known people who've sworn that praying (or some other religious type ritual - Voodoo might be a great example) had some sort of desired effect.

"I felt really sick, and I prayed then I immediately started to feel better." Is no doubt the Placebo effect in action.

It would be interesting to take the findings in this study and put it to the test on various religious practices. Voodoo would be interesting to study - as well as the concepts of good and bad luck. If a person BELIEVES they are "cursed" with bad luck will they really have bad luck as a result? If a person carries around a "good luck charm", will it increase the likelihood that they are lucky? So on, and so forth.