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Distraction
Have you ever had a health care professional suggest that
you focus on a pleasant image (“Think of a warm, comfortable
environment”) or perform some task (“Count backward by 3s”) ?
Drawing attention away from the painful stimulation is an
effective way to activate brain pathways that inhibit pain and
increase pain tolerance ( Edwards et al., 2009 ). For patients
who have experienced burns and are receiving excruciat-
ing wound care, an even more effective distraction is escap-
ing into virtual reality. As shown by fMRI scans, playing in a
computer-generated 3-D world reduces the brain’s pain-
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
Ellis Rosen/Cartoon Stock virtual environment [is] like a ‘brain hack,’” said one doctor
related activity ( Hoffman, 2004 ). Being “fully immersed in a
who uses virtual reality to treat pain. “You can’t be engaged in
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
anything else” ( Brody, 2019 ).

®
AP Science Practice Check Your Understanding
Examine the Concept Apply the Concept
▶ Explain the gate-control theory of pain. ▶ Explain some ways to control pain. Which methods of pain

▶ Explain the differences among the biological, psychological, control do you usually turn to when you need them? Has
and social-cultural influences on pain. learning about ways to control pain given you some new ideas
about other strategies to try?

Answers to the Examine the Concept questions can be found in Appendix C at the end of the book.
Taste
1.6-14 In what ways ar e our senses of taste and smell similar
1.6-14 In what ways are our senses of taste and smell similar, and how do they , and how do they

differ?
differ?
Like touch, gustation — our sense of taste — involves several basic sensations. Taste’s sen-

sations were once thought to be sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, with all others stemming from
mixtures of these four ( McBurney & Gent, 1979 ). Then, as investigators searched for special-
ized nerve fibers for taste, they encountered a receptor for a fifth taste sensation — the savory,
meaty taste of umami, best experienced as the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Other researchers then identified a sixth sensation: oleogustus, or the unique taste of fat.

Tastes exist for more than our pleasure (see Table 1.6-2 ). Pleasureful tastes attracted

our ancestors to energy- or protein-rich foods that enabled their survival. Aversive tastes
deterred them from new foods that might be toxic. We see the inheritance of this biolog-
ical wisdom in today’s 2- to 6-year-olds, who are typically fussy eaters, especially when
offered new meats or bitter-tasting vegetables, such as spinach and brussels sprouts
( Cooke et al., 2003 ). Meat and plant toxins were both potentially dangerous sources
of food poisoning for our ancestors, especially children. Given repeated small tastes
of disliked but safe new foods, however, most children begin to accept them ( Wardle
et al., 2003 ). We come to like what we eat. Compared with breast-fed babies, German
gustation our sense of taste.
babies bottle-fed vanilla-flavored milk grew up to be adults with a striking preference

148 Unit 1 Biological Bases of Behavior

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