Dr. Ronald Melzack and Dr. Patrick Wall’s paper “Pain Mechanisms: A New Theory” was described as “the most influential ever written in the field of pain.” The essential finding was that the pain sensation is conducted slowly along thin unmyelinated C nerve fibers, traveling at about two meters per second. In contrast, an impulse such as a vibration is conducted rapidly along thick myelinated A-beta nerve fibers at a rate of 75 meters per second. When these two sensa- tions coincide, the vibration sensation reaches the sensory area of the brain first, causing a release of inhibitory interneurons, thus preventing the activation of projectionneurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. This results in gate closure, and the pain sensation is blocked.