Video interview with Ronald Melzack, winner of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology

Video transcript

Ronald Melzack 2010 Grawemeyer Award Winner in Psychology

We are constantly sensing our environment. We’re trying to constantly figure out what we’re doing. It’s like us being landed on the moon and what would we do.

Imagine that you get an injury somewhere, that you’ve been stabbed with a pen, or touched something or something has pinched your finger. So imagine that these are messages going up to your brain and when they get to the brain they produce pain. Now imagine also that it is a gate that can be opened or closed so that those messages can be changed.