why is it that touching a spot on your body can cause a sensation on a completely separate part of your body?

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Example being poking a zit on the side of your face and then causing an itchy feeling on the back of your neck

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14 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Different places on your body are all very close in your brain, so sometimes the signal for one part of your body spills into a bit of the brain for the other parts.

Not sure what sort of ridiculous geniuses you people have for 5yo children.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I am not a neurologist. At the risk of oversimplification, I have always understood it to be a result of some “cross wiring” in the brain.

One possibility. Look up a picture of the somatosensory cortex, which is a part of your brain that controls the integration of sensation and movement of different parts of your body. Notice what sections are associated with different parts of your body. Sometimes touching one part of your body can activate neurons in nearby sections of the somatosensory cortex and send signals to another part of your body.

For example, the section of the somatosensory cortex that is associated with sensation in the genitals is adjacent to the sections that corresponds to sensations in your feet. That may explain why sometimes when people are overly stimulated or have an orgasm will feel tingling in their feet. Some researchers have suggested it could be a potential physiological basis of foot fetishes.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s called referred sensation and is very common. It’s also somewhat related to what you may have heard of as “phantom limb pain”.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is a certain spot on my right shoulder that if massaged properly I can feel between my legs 🤷🏻‍♀️