Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Think reality is self-evident. Neuroscientists at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet aren’t so sure. Seems recent testing reveals it is quite easy to convince the human mind that it’s body has three arms.
A February article in the online journal, PLoS ONE, reports on a study in which participants were asked to test the “supernumerary hand illusion.” The subjects were asked to place their right hand on table and a prosthetic rubber arm was placed next to it. The left arm was hidden from view by a screen. A drape was placed over the right shoulder so that only the forearms of the real and prosthetic arm were visible.
When a paintbrush was applied to the index finger of the real and the fake arm, the subject noted “feeling” sensation in both the real and the fake arm. They even noted the sense that both the real and fake arms were attached to their bodies. A similar result was obtained when a knife was place close to both arms in a simulated threatening gesture.
“Our study shows that the human brain has the ability to experience an extra third arm,” says Arvid Guterstam, the study’s lead author and a neuroscience doctoral student. You might think that being born with two arms and two legs would limit your body image to this idea, he says. “But within less than a minute, you can fool the brain into believing it has an extra arm, which is quite fantastic.”
Besides being “fantastic” the study holds promise for developing new artificial limbs and helping stroke victims who’ve lost the use of a limb. It might also explain why so many seemingly reasonable folks watch Glen Beck. Self-delusion, it appears, has a genetic origin.
Source: msnbc
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
This experiment reminds me of the technique that the character “House” used on that show to help a man who had lost an arm but was still feeling the phantom pain. I just love research on what we can do with our minds.
I can get into enough trouble with two arms!
Buckeye,
My wife and I had that same “experience” in Mississippi on our way down to New Orleans in the late 70’s. We also witnessed a home being moved on a flatbed that looked like it was in the middle of the road until we got right up next to it. Now, if I had seen it on the way home from New Orleans, it would have made much more sense.
Frog Licker…
No, Michigan.
Of course….Ohio….
A story about perception. I was driving down a familiar country road and saw in the distance a house in the middle of the road. As I kept driving my mind couldn’t reconcile the obvious inability of a house to be in the middle of the road we all traveled regularly with what I was seeing. The angst of trying to reconcile mind and sight was what people that claim to see UFOs must experience. It lasted the several moments it took to get to the “house”.
As it turned out there WAS a house in the middle of the road. One that was being moved from one property to another and because the wheels had slid off one side of the road the house was temporarily stuck.
I’ve never otherwise experienced such a dichotomy between mind and physical senses. Of course I’ve never done drugs, either. 🙂
Like I said, If you’re Good”…. You’ll never have to worry…and I was always Good…
I thought dancing on your hands went out with the 80’s and “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo”?
Oh. You guess mean the groping. Well . . . that never goes out of style I suppose.
Never mind.
But then again….If you’re good you never have to worry about getting slapped…
My point exactly, AY. 🙂
Buddha,
For some of us it would make our chances of getting slapped more often….
A third arm?
That would certainly make dancing a different experience.
Mike S.,
I came, I was, I am and now I am here…So I am what was, but a new beginning at where I am…
mespo.
You know attorney are quite adept at being thought of of fleecing the clients pockets…. We’ll with some we just need the extra advantage…..
“What we experience is largely a fiction. It works well enough most of the time – but not all the time.”
Nal,
I agree. It’s the main reason I’m a deist rather than an atheist. The reality apparent to me suggests the Universe is chaos. I just am not sure that what we all perceive as reality….is.
AY:
Stop!! You’re punning me to death. LOL
I think I saw one of these people near Three Mile Island or was that Arkansas…. Well you get the point…. mespo I’ll just have to hand it to you….. That would be quite the shake down….
Nal:
I’ve always been intrigued by notions of “phantom pain” in areas where limbs were lost. Maybe this study answers some questions.
Fascinating stuff: Body Snatchers, Phantom Limbs, and Alien Hands
The theme among these various phenomena – body swapping, phantom limbs, and alien hands – is that the brain is comparing different sensory inputs to see how they match and then uses the comparison to create the distinct but related sensations of occupying a physical space and body, owning body parts, and controlling body parts.
The implications of this are extremely interesting. For the skeptic it is another example of the fact that our perceptions of reality are constructed. This means that seeing (and experiencing) is not believing. What we experience is largely a fiction. It works well enough most of the time – but not all the time. It can be tricked into incorrect perceptions that we cannot distinguish from accurate perceptions – it all seems really real to our brains.