If your arm falls asleep for a while , it can sort of sense like it ’s made of rubber . But how do you make your branch sense like it ’s made of marble?According to Italian researchers , all you involve is the auditory sensation of a hammer tapping stone . And some psychological trickery .
You may be familiar withthe older synthetic rubber hand illusion : researchers hide a subject ’s weapon system from his or her view and have them wait at a pencil eraser hand . After fray a paint brush across both the material and the natural rubber mitt simultaneously , the guinea pig pop to intend he or she is feeling sense impression through the rubber hand . When the researcher brushes the safety deal , but not the real hired man , the patient reports that he or she can feel it .
Irene Senna , a psychologist at Milano - Bicocca University in Milan , Italy , decided totrade touch for phone to see if the illusion bring across senses . She had subjects put their arms behind a small wall , where researchers swung a tiny hammer ( lightly ) at the hand . content could see the pound coming towards their hands , and when the hammer touch the subject ’s skin , it triggered a recording of a hammer tapping marble . Each meter the subject mat up the pound , he or she heard the audio of a hammer on marble .
After about five minutes of this affiliation , subjects report that the arm being exploit feltheavy , unbendable , and in many cases , benumbed — as if their limbs had work to marble . A ascendancy chemical group , where the levelheaded consequence was not in sync with the sensation of the hammer tapping the skin , report no such sense datum .
Research like this might sound like an elaborate trick , but it ’s help scientist better understand the human relationship between our senses and our bodies . This is a hugely important area of study , related to the treatment of neurological disorders and providing a good agreement of how to integrate prosthetics to feel and function like an amputee ’s instinctive limb .
Then again , it shows just how easily our brain can be fooled . Do n’t trust everything you see — or hear . [ PLOS oneviaDiscover Magazine ]
paradigm : Shutterstock /Axel Lauer
PsychologySciencesensesSHUTTERSTOCK
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