For example, if you get a piece of popcorn stuck between your teeth somewhere, it feels like your tongue can find exactly where it is, but when you go to reach for it with your finger you can’t feel it. It feels like your finger is ‘blind’ and touching the wrong area.
Does this have something to do with your tongue being in your mouth all the time so it’s ‘familiar’ with the environment as opposed to your fingers? Is this a sensation/perception issue?
In: Biology
The tongue has a much higher density of sensory receptors compared to your fingers. It’s packed with mechanoreceptors (touch sensors) and proprioceptors (position sensors), making it extremely sensitive to texture, pressure, and spatial information within the mouth. A disproportionately large area of the somatosensory cortex in the brain is devoted to processing sensory information from the tongue and mouth. Also, the tongue’s muscular structure and flexibility allow it to conform to the shape of teeth, providing more surface area contact than a relatively rigid finger.
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