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In the blink of an eye (mosaicscience.com)
10 points by tomkwok on Sept 8, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments



If I followed this right:

1) Some external/biological problem (dry eyes) triggers the nerves to send pain signals to the brain.

2) Due to long-term external/biological problem the nerves become conditioned to send pain signals

3) Even when the external/biological problem is solved, the nerves can stay "latched" in a position of sending pain signals. There is currently no cure for this problem.

That's pretty scary stuff.


I get that some eye scientists can find this problem uninteresting and prefer not to work on it. What I don't get is the need to bury the research when some scientists are interested in getting to the bottom of this eye pain. If this research does lead to new therapies which can reduce or eliminate the eye pain reported by some patients, what will be the excuse of the doctors who tried to bury the research?

As researcher Donald Korb is quoted as saying in the article, "“When I think back about how ignorant I was seven years ago, I’m appalled."




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