Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

jrlewis's picture

touch as a construction...

When my father was taking a drug called sinemet for Parkinson's Disease, he hallucinated? (is that the right word here?) the feeling of a light material resting on top of his clothing.  It distracted him during conversations and meals.  Actually, it drove him crazy; he spent hours picking the imaginary material off himself.  His doctor commented that this was a common side effect of the medication.  He had seen and heard of other patients experiencing the same thing.  I’m not sure whether his symptoms were caused by the medication or the disease.  The main medication prescribed for Parkinson’s disease is sinemet, a combination of levodopa and carbidopa that is converted into dopamine in the human brain.  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter.  Excess amounts of dopamine in the brain cause all sorts of interesting symptoms.  So maybe there is a chemical explanation for hallucinating touch? 

Articles that complicate the sense of touch in interesting ways:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/health/psychology/31marr.html?_r=1&scp=2

sq=sensitivity%20to%20touch%20and%20the%20brain&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/07itch.html?scp=4&sq=sensitivity%20to%20touch%20and%20the%20brain&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/us/a-separate-pathway-slowly-carries-a-caress-to-the-brain-s-attention.html?scp=11&sq=sensitivity%20to%20touch%20and%20the%20brain&st=cse

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
2 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.