Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff Lauren Voglebon here. What if you lost
Speaker 1: all sense of self? You know you have a body,
Speaker 1: You can see it there beneath you, but you can't
Speaker 1: feel it. You aren't paralyzed per se, just unaware that
Speaker 1: your body is moving unless you're looking at it, and
Speaker 1: then only under intense concentration and your own watchful eye
Speaker 1: can you reach out towards something and grasp it. But
Speaker 1: if you don't look or pay close attention, the object
Speaker 1: will either slip out of your hand because you're holding
Speaker 1: it too loosely, or you'll squeeze up with such intensity
Speaker 1: that your knuckles go pale. The ability to feel our
Speaker 1: bodies to unconsciously sense them, is known as propri exception.
Speaker 1: It's sometimes referred to as the secret sense or the
Speaker 1: sixth sense. Unlike our five senses sight, sound, smell, touch,
Speaker 1: and taste, which are obvious to us, the sense of
Speaker 1: controlling and owning our own bodies is hidden. We're usually
Speaker 1: unaware of the sensation unless something goes wrong. Appropriate reception
Speaker 1: is the awareness of where your body is in space.
Speaker 1: For example, while walking, sensor receptors on your skin joints
Speaker 1: and muscles send signals to the brain that make you
Speaker 1: aware of your right foot being in front of you,
Speaker 1: even if your eyes are closed or if you're not
Speaker 1: looking down at your feet. Appropriate reception is sometimes used
Speaker 1: interchangeably with the teram at caynesthesia, but they're actually very
Speaker 1: different perceptions. Canesthesia is the sense of movement of our muscles, tendons,
Speaker 1: and joints. For example, while walking, the brain picks up
Speaker 1: on the sensations of force, velocity, and the propelling of
Speaker 1: your body forward from the inner ear, which oversees balance
Speaker 1: orientation to sense movement. You're aware of the sensation of
Speaker 1: your body being in motion even if you're focused on
Speaker 1: the scenery around you and not on your body. Appropriate
Speaker 1: reception in kinnesthesia, while different work together to make us
Speaker 1: cognizant of our own bodies in space. Combined, they can
Speaker 1: be considered the sixth sense, or respectively as the sixth
Speaker 1: and seventh senses. Appropriate reception plays a vital role in
Speaker 1: balance and orientation, enabling us to stand upright or walk,
Speaker 1: especially on uneven surfaces. It allows golfers to perfect their
Speaker 1: swings and dancers to move with the grace of a butterfly.
Speaker 1: We spoke with Dr Jack Shelley trim Blay, Professor and
Speaker 1: Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of
Speaker 1: South Alabama. He said, when it functions normally, we take
Speaker 1: it for granted. One of the most fascinating things aboutppropriate
Speaker 1: reception is when it fails. Sometimes people experience a temporary
Speaker 1: impairment of the sixth sense. To think of someone who
Speaker 1: is intoxicated with alcohol with their vestibular system impaired, They
Speaker 1: have a sense appropriate exception loss and thus may weave
Speaker 1: a bit when they walk or bump into stationary objects,
Speaker 1: or lose their balance and fall. But a more precise
Speaker 1: example is when your arm falls asleep and as a result,
Speaker 1: it feels numb and it is difficult to move. People
Speaker 1: appropriate reception disorder or impairment may experience at times the
Speaker 1: sensation of being off balance in coordination or clumsiness, being
Speaker 1: more prone to falls, and or being unable to recognize
Speaker 1: their own strength, such as pressing down too hard with
Speaker 1: a pencil when writing. Sometimes injuries or disorders can cause
Speaker 1: a permanent loss approprise reception, such as brain injuries, arthritis, stroke,
Speaker 1: peripheral neuropathy, alis, or leu Garreg's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Speaker 1: But there are two unusual conditions that are related to
Speaker 1: approprise reception. First, alien limb syndrome, also called alien hand syndrome.
Speaker 1: This neurological disorder can affect the hand or the leg
Speaker 1: and causes the limb to act independently or involuntarily of
Speaker 1: the person's desires. British neurologist Oliver Sacks describes in a
Speaker 1: chapter of his book The Man who mistook his wife
Speaker 1: for a hat a patient who awoke to find what
Speaker 1: he believed to be a cadaver's leg in bed with him. Disgusted,
Speaker 1: the man pushed the leg off the bed, only to
Speaker 1: drop onto the floor after it. He then became distraught
Speaker 1: when he realized that the strange leg was attached to him.
Speaker 1: Then there's phantom limb syndrome, which is a condition that
Speaker 1: can affect amputees. Phantom limb syndrome occurs when someone feels
Speaker 1: sensations in the limb that has been removed. For some
Speaker 1: it can be a painful experience. One man described the
Speaker 1: sensation in his phantom hand as being a constant state
Speaker 1: of tight clenching that neither pain killers nor hypnosis could
Speaker 1: ease Researchers suggested that the signals going from his muscles
Speaker 1: to his brain were not getting the feedback to stop
Speaker 1: clenching because the eyes weren't seeing the hand. They successfully
Speaker 1: showed that by placing the man's intact arm into a
Speaker 1: mirror box, the man could visually resurrect the phantom limb
Speaker 1: and convince his brain to stop sending clenching signals. As
Speaker 1: a result, he found relief from the unsettling phantom hand sensation.
Speaker 1: In rare cases, people can lose all sense appropriate reception.
Speaker 1: In his book of Case Studies, Sachs described the case
Speaker 1: of Christina. The twenty seven year old woman appeared to
Speaker 1: have a reaction to medication in which the sensory roots
Speaker 1: of her spinal and cranial nerves became inflamed. Afterward, she
Speaker 1: suddenly lost the ability to study herself while standing or
Speaker 1: holding objects in her hands. Within days, if not hours,
Speaker 1: she became quote floppy as a rag doll, unable to
Speaker 1: even sit up. Christina never regained her sense of self,
Speaker 1: but gradually, through rehabilitation and fierce concentration on her movements,
Speaker 1: she was able to sit up and walk again. Another
Speaker 1: case of total loss appropriate reception was detailed in neurologist J.
Speaker 1: Cole's book Pride and a Daily Marathon. The book focuses
Speaker 1: on Ian Waterman, who, at the age of nineteen, lost
Speaker 1: all sense of his body from his neck down after
Speaker 1: a brief illness. A waterman described feeling as if he
Speaker 1: were just ahead floating on a pillow. Like Christina, he
Speaker 1: had not recovered at the time of publication, but with
Speaker 1: much therapy and her nation, he was able to sit
Speaker 1: up and walk again. While frightening to imagine. Shelley Tremblay
Speaker 1: assures us that the total loss of appropriate reception is
Speaker 1: quite rare, and that the impairment of the sense is treatable.
Speaker 1: The first line of defense when treating propose reception issues
Speaker 1: is to determine the underlying cause and treat that Activities
Speaker 1: that focus on mobility, muscle strength, and sense of balance
Speaker 1: may also help sharpen propose reception, according to study published
Speaker 1: in the Journal of Athletic Training. Some of these therapies
Speaker 1: include physical therapies, matasensory stimulation, balance exercises, tai chi, and yoga.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is that although our sixth sense may
Speaker 1: be hidden from us, approprise. Reception plays a critical role
Speaker 1: in giving us a sense of ownership of our bodies.
Speaker 1: We may take it for granted, but without it would
Speaker 1: be essentially disembodied. Today's episode was written by Jennifer Walker
Speaker 1: Journey and produced by Tyler Client Firm. More on this
Speaker 1: and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Or more podcasts from my heart Radio visit the iHeart
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.