JITOTM46: The Rubber Hand
It starts as a simple illusion: place a rubber arm next to your own on a table, hide your arm, and stroke the fake one with a paintbrush. You'll be amazed! You'll be transfixed! You'll be in the mood to question just how easily your awareness can me misplaced!
The trick is a simple one, but the implications are profound. If stimulating a simulated limb can send your mind into a tizzy... isn't consciousness itself all about location, location, location?
Where is the mind, really? Can it be above and behind the body, as in a third-person-shooter? What about floating up and away, as in an out-of-body-experience? Can your mind be in your heart, as some Native peoples believe? Where did Helen Keller - blind and deaf from birth - feel her mind was? How did Wayne Gretzky "see the ice from above?"
These and many other questions are asked intriguingly, if not answered resoundingly, in the latest episode of JITOTM, The Rubber Hand. We stimulate - you respond!
posted by David Newland at 8:03 AM
3 Comments:
At about age four I would find myself floating about our house for several minutes in the early morning. This 'event' was repeated several more times during the next six months, then stopped altogether. At age 17 it started again and I noticed that it seemed to be initiated by my sleeping with my head on my left forearm in a way that somewhat constricted blood flow. I concluded that a change in blood supply to my brain was causing a 'shift' in my sense of self.
3:59 AM
Another interesting phenomenon that may be related to the "Rubber Hand" effect is the notion that some forms of phantom limb pain are learned. V.S. Ramachandran, in a video at www.ted.com, presents a case study of a man who through the use of a mirror eliminated his phantom limb pain. The mirror technique allowed the man to extinguish the learned pain response. Ramachandran suggests that some forms of paralysis in stroke victims are learned. It might be that the rubber hand effect is based upon learned responses via the visual system.
1:31 PM
I'd have to say its quite simple, The human mind is an intricate system of hardwired components. Its amazing, the only thing you need to do is hardwire your brain a certain way, i mean isnt it true that if you were to be blind your other senses would improve? why not try to blindfold yourself for a month, then your other senses would be much stronger, try it with all your senses and tell me what you find. im your basic science fiction/philosophy novelist, if your interested email me at hardyman21@hotmail.com with my sincerity thank you, im sure i can show you much. Even you jay ingram, thanks.
4:13 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home