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I wanted to comment a little bit on the question of something being painful (or in what way) if it is forgotten, such as with circumcision. I know that studies were mentioned in class about boys who had been circumcised having a lower threshold to pain as compared to those who had not, a few questions pop into my head.

The first is what exactly they were measuring when they say "pain threshold." I looked up the study (Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination, Taddio et al 1996). This study (the one that was frequently cited online) looked at pain response during vaccination for infants who had been circumcised with or without a lidocaine cream prior as well as uncircimcised infants. Key here, though, is that they are looking at 4-6 month old babies and at "percentage facial action, percentage cry time, and visual analogue scale pain scores."

Can these things actually provide an accurate measure of pain for an infant? We were talking alot in class about how relative pain is, and how specific it is for each person. I wonder if "facial action" can actually highlight pain sensitivity very well. Furthermore, how applicable is this study to adults? These studies were being done at most about 23 weeks after circumcision has taken place. What happens 23 YEARS later? Are these men still having differential pain tolerance to vaccination? What about to other types of pain? It is very difficult for me to look at a study such as this one and come out with the conclusion that "circumcision reduces pain threshold" as it simply appears far too specific.