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To respond to your edit, I don't quite understand what you're getting at. It's quite well understood how the brain represents touch - all the sensory neurons i
by skohan 5y ago
To respond to your edit, I don't quite understand what you're getting at. It's quite well understood how the brain represents touch - all the sensory neurons in your skin send information to a brain region which maintains a spacial representation of your body.
Your brain isn't sensitive to touch because it's inside your skull, so that touch information wouldn't do a whole lot for you. There's no reason in principal a brain couldn't have pressure sensitive neurons inside of itself or on its surface.
- srean 5y agoNo. Even you crack the skull open and poke the brain, it wont feel a thing even when conscious. The skull, the skin will feel, but the brain itself has no pain/tactile receptors. Many surgical procedures on the brain are done with the patient very much awake.
- skohan 5y agoYeah exactly, why would it?
- srean 5y agoI am just adding to your explanation. The brain is insensitive not because it is "inside your skull" but because of the lack of pain receptors in the brain. Our bone marrow is inside our bones. Trust me, it is not pleasant to touch.
- skohan 5y agoYeah that's exactly what I was saying. It doesn't need touch receptors because it's inside your skull. It makes sense to evolve pain sensitivity in your bones because if you are doing something which is causing damage inside your bones, you had better have a signal to stop. For most of the evolutionary history of humanity, if your skull was compromised, you would be dead.