I found this topic very insightful and interesting. For the past two weeks I have been experiencing a strange sensation in my feet and hands. I initially would have described it as numbness and tingling but I also felt that was not a very accurate explanation. After reading about how Somatosensory Cortex can effect the way a person feels touch and other types of sensory input I think I have a better understanding of what might be happening with by sense of touch. The video describes they very complex sensory receptors in the skin. Our dermis and epidermis have a variety of nerve endings and receptor sights. Some are responsible for sending messages to the brain of temperature, some send messages of pressure on the skin on that specific location. The nerve endings by the hair follicles send messages to the brain that the hair is being touched or moved by a breeze. In some way this helped me to understand why I can feel heat and cold but if I feel a texture of some thing rubs my skin it feels abnormal. I realize that the messages that are being sent to my brain by some receptors are clear and being interpreted in the cortex correctly while other receptor sights are not interpreting the sense correctly or it is not sending the cortex the correct information. I realize that this doesn't explain why the somatosensory cortex isn't working correctly or why the receptor sights might not be correctly sensing the touch but it does help me to feel better informed of why I can do something with my hands and feet but others seem to be effected.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Somatosensory Cortex
I found this topic very insightful and interesting. For the past two weeks I have been experiencing a strange sensation in my feet and hands. I initially would have described it as numbness and tingling but I also felt that was not a very accurate explanation. After reading about how Somatosensory Cortex can effect the way a person feels touch and other types of sensory input I think I have a better understanding of what might be happening with by sense of touch. The video describes they very complex sensory receptors in the skin. Our dermis and epidermis have a variety of nerve endings and receptor sights. Some are responsible for sending messages to the brain of temperature, some send messages of pressure on the skin on that specific location. The nerve endings by the hair follicles send messages to the brain that the hair is being touched or moved by a breeze. In some way this helped me to understand why I can feel heat and cold but if I feel a texture of some thing rubs my skin it feels abnormal. I realize that the messages that are being sent to my brain by some receptors are clear and being interpreted in the cortex correctly while other receptor sights are not interpreting the sense correctly or it is not sending the cortex the correct information. I realize that this doesn't explain why the somatosensory cortex isn't working correctly or why the receptor sights might not be correctly sensing the touch but it does help me to feel better informed of why I can do something with my hands and feet but others seem to be effected.
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the video was short but it does the job. it explains and let us know what and how the sense of touch works. and if your symptoms continue you go check that out at the Doctor.
ReplyDeleteI hope you go to a doctor soon to check those symptoms out if they persist. I enjoyed the video. It was relieving to view something short and to the point. I don't know if anyone else has seen this experiment before but, I know I read about it I believe in my introduction to psychology course. When you have a person face a wall and you stand behind them with two pencils. Then you put them on different places on their back. When you have the pencils far apart they can tell it is two pencils. However, when you put them in the middle of a person's back and they are close together the person will respond that there is only one pencil touching them and not two. I wonder since we have so many touch receptors why we can not tell that it is two pencils instead of one? Just a thought to go a little beyond what we read from the book and trying to apply it other things.
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