In 1972, an Eleven-Year-Old Member of a Tribe That Inhabits

Multiple Choice

In 1972, an eleven-year-old member of a tribe that inhabits the Fiji islands walked on white-hot coals. He seemed to experience no pain. The gate-control theory of pain would explain this by maintaining that ________.

A) because of the warm and cold receptors in his feet, he experienced the heat from the coals as paradoxical heat
B) sensory nerves in the spinal cord prevented the impulse from reaching his brain
C) he was able to "will" the sensory neurons in his feet to shut down while he was walking on the coals
D) by consciously focusing on other stimuli, his frontal lobes were able to ignore the pain messages coming up the spinal cord