Fascinating NYT Article on Sense of Touch
 

hmmmmmmmmmmm... rant follows article snippet:

Primal, Acute and Easily Duped: Our Sense of Touch

By NATALIE ANGIER p Published: December 8, 2008 - New York Times

(snipped)

Biologically, chronologically, allegorically and delusionally, touch is the mother of all sensory systems. It is an ancient sense in evolution: even the simplest single-celled organisms can feel when something brushes up against them and will respond by nudging closer or pulling away. It is the first sense aroused during a baby’s gestation and the last sense to fade at life’s culmination. Patients in a deep vegetative coma who seem otherwise lost to the world will show skin responsiveness when touched by a nurse.

Like a mother, touch is always hovering somewhere in the perceptual background, often ignored, but indispensable to our sense of safety and sanity. “Touch is so central to what we are, to the feeling of being ourselves, that we almost cannot imagine ourselves without it,” said Chris Dijkerman, a neuropsychologist at the Helmholtz Institute of Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “It’s not like vision, where you close your eyes and you don’t see anything. You can’t do that with touch. It’s always there."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/sc...html?th&emc=th

(note: free registration required to read stuff at the New York Times)

been thinking about this article since yesterday.

the sense of touch is so crucial to our understanding of the world around us, that NUMBNESS becomes an MS symptom which seriously impacts our lives.

yet, since numbness doesn't cause the irritation of spasticity, or the helplessness of vision impairment, or the agony of trigeminal neuralgia, it's often given short shrift and tuned out.

but in terms of daily living, numbness is ever-present, and interferes with the smallest things, from trying to pluck eyebrows, to getting zippers zipped, and hair fixed.

large things become difficult as well, causing burns from the woodstove, dropped dishes, and finger-damage when chopping vegetables...

and never MIND trying to drive, with feet that cannot feel the pedals, and hands that cannot feel the steering wheel (which is why I no longer drive)

anyway, I guess I got a little annoyed with the woman quoted above, who said the sense of touch is always there...

how do we DEAL with life when we can't FEEL things ??

:o:rolleyes::o

Thanks for the article. The part I found interesting is that vibrations in certain areas can make the sense of touch go wonky. Makes one wonder sometimes, but then again I could've told them that. My numbness always gets worse when it feels like I'm buzzing and vibrating. :rolleyes:

Touch screens have definitely made things interesting. Hubby asked me if I wanted to get an Iphone, but I can barely get it to work right. I often press too softly for it to register anything. So I told him "no thanks" and am sticking with my buttoned cell. :rolleyes:

yes, Finny!

I am unable to operate DH's cell phone at all... the buttons are too small to feel.

I love my computer keyboard, because the keys CLICK, whick lets me know I actually PUSHED them, hard enough for a letter to appear, lol...

and my new digital camera... it doesn't have a nice ROUND raised shutter button, alas.

there's a rectangular teeter-totter button which I am struggling with.

by the time I've located it visually, the pic I wanted is no longer in the viewfinder, whoops! because I've jiggled the camera... while looking at the buttons, since my right hand is profoundly numb.

I may have to learn to clickit with my left (which is less numb, but unfortunately, also less coordinated.

:rolleyes:

Numbness is troublesome for many reasons, obviously, but what I find the most difficult about "touch" is "sensitivity to touch".

There have been times where even the seams of my clothing or a wrinkle in the bedsheet feels like someone is scouring me with a steel wool pad. My kids couldn't get near me when I was like that . . .

Or, when a shower felt like a sand blaster on my body . . .

Or, where it feels like I have a fired up blow-torch on my legs, without even being touched.

Once upon a time I considered being a massage therapist because I loved "touch", and was good at finding muscles and working out knots, etc. Now when I touch anything it feels like I am running my hands over sand paper.

I can't feel my feet, so it seems as though I am walking on posts . . .

MS affects the whole family, especially the impact on "touch". :(

Cherie

I was annoyed with that statement too, Kay..:mad:. What about paralized people? It's not always there.

Good article though, it made me think deeply. Thanks..:hug:

I agree with all of you, it is essential to living life, and it can disappear, drop things cause you cant tell if you picked it up ,cant even feel your arm and for you know its gone, looking at the floor to make sure your feet are actually on the ground b4 getting out of bed, so you don't stumble,

the person who wrote this did not think of all the scenarios that may present themselves to the lost of touch

yes, Frank !!

maybe we should suggest that they explore the ramifications of the LOSS of the sense of touch, considering how important it is.

part of the reason I found the article so fascinating is that, like Cherie, I once considered becoming a massage therapist...

I'm *really* a touchy-feely kind of person, and used to give a lot of massages.

my husband doesn't seem to mind that the backrubs he gets nowadays are from the "memory" of knowing how to do it, and NOT from actually being able to FEEL what I'm doing.

oddly enough... I can feel *some* input from my left hand - the numbness isn't as deep as it is in my right hand - it's sort of like I'm wearing gloves...

or maybe, one latex glove on my left hand, and a cotton gardening glove on my right... so, I can feel pressure and force, but not the tactile sensations of skin against skin... which is what I CRAVE.

touching makes me feel connected, and present on the planet... makes me feel, oh, I don't know... ALIVE ??

and so, I think the numbness is one of my greatest losses due to MS.

I know, I know, I *should* be grateful that my right arm is no longer simply *dangling* like cooked spaghetti, and that I can USE it to some degree, but I guess I just want my sense of touch back.

what I miss most is caressing the piano keyboard, arpeggios and trills, glissandos and crescendos, yeah, tickling the old ivories... that's the thing that MS has taken from me that makes me the saddest.

I have major motor control, but lost the FINE skills, and delicate touch necessary to blast out a little Chopin, or float through some Beethoven... and that sometimes brings me a deep abiding sorrow, and a burning hot little nugget of resentment.

:o

i agree that the sense of touch is central to us being human beings.

i did a research paper once on touch in babies.
i used to teach infant massage to parents.
and, i used touch and massage in my nursing career on some sick and premature infants.

there was nothing better to calm a stressed infant than "holding" them in your hands.

interesting thread.