The sense of touch

The skin is the sense organ of touch. It has millions of nerves that make it sensitive to touch. When something touches the skin, the sensory nerves in the skin send messages to the brain. The brain receives the messages as unpleasant or pleasant feelings. There are five kinds of messages the brain can receive from the sensory nerves of the skin. These messages are pain, heat, cold, pressure and light touch.

The sense of touch is very important. You can learn about your body through the sense of touch. When you are injured, you often wish you could not feel pain; yet, it is important that you feel it. Pain protects you and lets you know if there is something wrong in your body.

Pain is a puzzle with many pieces. People’s description of pain is varied – shooting, scalding, splitting, throbbing, cramping, sharp and dull. Solving the puzzle of pain has been difficult because of its very nature: ethical considerations prevent researchers from doing much more than experiment with mild pain stimuli such as moderate heat or cold.

Pain has a physiological component, which is tied up with specific nerves, brain structures. It also has a subjective component, which varies with the person’s attitudes and fears. The physiological component is relatively easy to describe. Pain receptors are found in the skin, deep muscles, organs and joints. These receptors are stimulated by cuts, scrapes, extreme cold or heat. Most receptors relay their messages to the spinal cord. If you burn your hand, a message immediately goes into the spinal cord, telling you to take your hand away from the source of pain. Because these reflexes are based in the spinal cord, you remove your hand before your brain has become fully aware of the pain.

With time, we adopt to minor pain. However, we show little adaptation to intense pain. Because pain tells us that something is wrong, it is fortunate that we do not adopt to it immediately. Consider the situation of those few people who are born without the ability to feel pain. Such people may experience severe burns, broken bones without feeling the pain.

VIII. Agree or disagree with the following statements

1. The skin is the sense organ of sight.

2. When something touches the brain, the sensory nerves in the eyes send message to the skin.

3. There are four kinds of messages the brain can receive from sensory nerves in the skin.

4. The sense of touch is not important.

5. Pain protects you.

6. People’s description of pain is varied – shooting, scalding, splitting, sharp and dull.

7. Pain has physiological and subjective components.

8. Most receptors relay their messages to the brain.

9. With time, we adapt to minor pain.

IX. Prove that:

1. the sense of touch is very important;

2. it is difficult to solve the puzzle of pain.

X. Imagine that people don’t have the sense of touch.

XI. Work in groups. Ask 5 questions of different types to your group mates.