Published: 10 December 2007
Neuroscientists have found that a cardboard cutout of the ubiquitous Hilton Hotel heiress has a painkilling effect on mice. Jeffrey Mogil of 91社区 and his colleagues noticed that male mice showed signs of less pain when a scientist was present, so, to investigate whether it was the sight or smell of a human that caused the effect, the researchers acquired a promotional cardboard cutout of Hilton. Paris's effect appeared to be gender-specific. Male mice spent less time licking their wounds when fake Paris was in sight, but females showed no such effect. When the team put up a screen to block the rodents' view, the effect went away. The researchers reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.