Touch

Touch

Introduction

Our minds are subject to drawing conclusions from our own perception due to our sensitive nature. The brain assumes situations from what we hear, see or when touched. Illusion is a perception that occurs due to deliverance of a particular stimulus under specific conditions that produce a different mental experience when conditions change (Calvert, Spence & Stein, 2004). Tactile illusions are motivated by technological displays, displays in cinemas, computer screen displays and audio reproduction systems.

The Parchment Skin Illusion

Performed action

I patted my friend once on his skin while playing three spaced electronic beeps in the background. My friend thought that I patted him three times instead of once.

Explanation for this illusion

This is a cross-modal interaction resulting from touch and hearing. My friend thought I patted him thrice because his braining was simultaneously listening to the electronic beeps I was playing. Cutaneous sense comprises the basket cell, Pacinian corpuscle, and nerve ending receptors (Calvert, Spence & Stein, 2004). The basket cell produces a sensation that is sent to the brain by the neuron inform of impulses. Pacinian corpuscle detects physical pressure on the skin and triggers a nerve impulse to the brain. Nerve endings detect any pain or damage to the skin. In this case the brain is affected by both cutaneous sense and hearing sense (Calvert, Spence & Stein, 2004). This illusion is not specific for touch. Tactile illusions are very few and rare to find but most of them are accompanied by other illusions especially auditory and visual. The effectiveness of counting the tactile events was affected by the simultaneity of the two events. Therefore the felt taps depended on the heard beeps. These two interactions show that multi-modal cortical circuits do exist. Therefore, tactile effect is affected by cross-modality of numbers.

The curved bowl illusion

Performed action

I tied my friend’s eyes with a piece of cloth then pressed his hand down in a bowl with his fingers stretched upwards for a minute or two. I then removed his hand and placed it on a flat surface. My friend claimed he was touching a curved surface.

Explanation for this illusion

This tactile illusion was a result of his hand first adapting to curved surface such that on changing the surface, the initial stimulus persisted. This is as a result of sensory adaptation by all senses in his body. The brain’s adaptation to nerve signals cause a sense of proprioception in his mind hence causing the curved surface after-effect. Specialized sensory organs that give one his indispensable sense of himself are called proprioceptors. They are found in muscles, tendons, joints and they induce balance, coordination and agility in the human body (Calvert, Spence & Stein, 2004).

Muscle spindles work at informing the brain the degree a muscle stretches and contracts so as to keep track of its length. Golgi tendon proprioceptors attach muscles to bones and relay information on the amount of tension felt by a muscle to the brain. Therefore incase the length of a muscle does not change though it could be under pressure; tendons relay this message to the brain for necessary action to be taken (Calvert, Spence & Stein, 2004). Joint receptor proprioceptors collect information on limb position, orientation and movement. The brain therefore has to remember a lot of information which is why it has somehow developed ways to ignore constant signals that have been that way for a period of time. This illusions created by the brain demonstrates the interconnection that exists between it and its many input and output functions.

Conclusion

Illusions are of many different kinds depending on what body organ is being used. We generally consider them to be tricks played by the brain on us but in reality this illusions are considered very normal and proof of existence of the sixth-sense we constantly ignore.

 

 

Reference

Calvert, G., Spence, C., & Stein, B. E. (2004). The Handbook of Multisensory Processes. New      York: MIT Press.

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