Test:1
Imagine you are allergic to the oil of the Japanese lacquer tree- so allergic that the brush of a leaf against your skin provokes an angry rash. Strapping a blindfold over your eyes, a scientist tells you she’s going to rub your right arm with lacquer leaf and your left arm with the innocuous leaf of a chestnut tree. The rubbing commences, and before long your right arm is covered with burning itchy welts. Your left side feels fine. No surprise until you learn that your left arm- not the right- is the one that got lacquered! How would you explain that!
Test:2
Or imagine that Parkinson’s disease had reduced your walk to a shuffle and left your hands too shaky to grasp a pencil. You enroll in a study and receive an experimental surgical treatment, which dramatically improves both your gait and your grip. You’re ready to declare it a miracle of modern medicine, when you discover that the operation was a sham. The surgeon merely drilled a small hole in your skull and then patched it.
Using PET scans researchers compared their brains with those of patients who received an active treatment. As expected, the active intervention caused a significant rise in dopamine- the neurotransmitter that people with Parkinson’s lack. But the patients who improved on placebo experienced a similar dopamine surge.
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The New Science of Mind and Body