Explain how the gate control model of pain perception relates to people's ability to withstand excruciating pain and how distraction and placebos relate to the gate control model.

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The Answer is Answers will vary but should contain the following points with supporting discussion to earn full credit.
-- Pain is physiological and emotional in nature,involving structures in the limbic system as well as basic somatosensory activity.
-- The gate control model (Melzack & Wall)proposes that intense pain can be blocked in circumstances (i.e. ,birthing,skin grafts,combat injuries)from consciousness because neural mechanisms in the spinal cord function as a "gate" to control the flow of sensory input to the CNS.
-- Using things like distraction and placebos are a way of dividing attention away from pain and permitting less focus on the pain itself (like a gate).

Explain How the Gate Control Model of Pain Perception Relates