"Watch out, it’ll hurt for a second." Not only children but also many adults get uneasy when they hear those words from their do

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问题     "Watch out, it’ll hurt for a second." Not only children but also many adults get uneasy when they hear those words from their doctors. And, as soon as the needle touches their skin the piercing pain can be felt very clearly. "After such an experience it is enough to simply imagine a needle at the next vaccination appointment to activate our pain memory," knows Prof. Dr. Thomas Weiss from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    As the scientist and his team from the Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology could show in a study for the first time it is not only the painful memories and associations that set our pain memory on the alert. "Even verbal stimuli lead to reactions in certain areas of the brain," claims Prof. Weiss. As soon as we hear words like "tormenting," "tiring" or "plaguing," exactly those areas in the brain are being activated which process the corresponding pain. The psychologists from Jena University were able to examine this phenomenon using functional magnetic resonance tomography (fMRT). In their study they investigated how healthy subjects process words associated with experiencing pain. In order to prevent reactions based on a plain negative affect the subjects were also confronted with negatively connotated words like "terrifying," "horrible" or "disgusting" besides the proper pain words.
    "Subject performed two tasks," explains Maria Richter in Weiss’s team. "In a first task, subjects were supposed to imagine situations which correspond to the words," the Jena psychologist says. In a second task, subjects were also reading the words but they were distracted by a puzzle. "In both cases we could observe a clear activation of the pain matrix in the brain by pain-associated words," Maria Richter states. Other negatively connotated words, however, do not activate those regions. Neither for neutrally nor for positively connotated words comparable activity patterns could be examined.
    "These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix," underlines Prof. Weiss. To save painful experiences is of biological advantage since it allows us to avoid painful situations in the future which might be dangerous for our lives. "However, our results suggest as well that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than we have thought so far." For the Jena psychologist the question remains open which role the verbal confrontation with pain plays for chronic pain patients. "They tend to speak a lot about their experiencing of pain to their physician," Maria Richter says. It is possible that those conversations intensify the activity of the pain matrix in the brain and therefore intensify the pain experience.
    And so far it won’t do any harm not to talk too much about pain. Maybe then the next injection will be only half as painful.
Prof. Thomas Weiss holds that ________.

选项 A、painful association will trigger more reactions in the brain
B、words are also effective in stimulating pain memories
C、pain words and negatively implied words have the same effect
D、fMRT is a widely-used tool in the scientific research of psychology

答案B

解析 题干问的是Prof. Thomas Weiss的观点,而原文中他的观点主要是在第二段。该段第一句中的the scientist指的就是他。第二句引用他的话,指出“话语刺激(verbal stimuli)也会使大脑的某些区域产生反应”,其中的verbal stimuli就是words,结合第一句,我们就可以得知Weiss认为verbal stimuli“语言刺激”也可以激发疼痛记忆,B项与此相吻合,故为答案。第二段第二句说的是与疼痛相关的记忆和联系可以引起疼痛记忆,A项中的more reactions指代不明,语义含糊,与文中的pain memory并不对应,故可排除A项。第三段第四五句说,能明显观察到与疼痛相关的词汇能激活大脑中的疼痛基质,而其他具有负面暗示的词汇不能激活这些区域,因此C项说两者有同样效果是不正确的。第二段第四句只是提到研究人员在做研究时利用了fMRT技术,但这并不代表fMRT就是一种广泛应用的心理学研究工具,D项过度推断,故应排除。
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