...Unspoken Love A Far Off Place by Laurens Van Der Post is an incredible story of adventure and surviving against all odds set in the 1970s. It centers on Francois, a fourteen year old boy, growing up in the interior of Africa on his farm with only his mother since his father passed away the year before. Nonnie, a young Portuguese girl, was friends with Francois whom she met the year before for a few weeks before having to go off to boarding school while her family’s house was being built close by to Francois’s. The night Nonnie returns Francois hears a special animal call in code during the middle of the night from Xhabbo, a Bushmen that Francois had saved from a lion trap a year and a half before. Francois knows the call is urgent and as he is sneaking out runs into Nonnie, who thinks it is time to go on their morning rounds of the farm not knowing that it is still the middle of the night. Resulting in Nonnie going with Francois to meet Xhabbo, who explains that Francois’s farm is entirely surrounded by a guerrilla army. Francois’s home is massacred and no one lives except for him, his hunting dog Hintza, Nonnie, Xhabbo, and Xhabbo’s wife Nuin-Tara. The only way to safety is to cross the Kalahari Desert to make it to the coast due to the army slowly taking over the entire surrounding area. They discover the only way to survive is to trust and depend on one another. The most significant interpersonal communication topic expressed when reading A Far Off Place is the power of haptics...
Words: 1987 - Pages: 8
...What is phantom limb syndrome? The phantom limb syndrome is the perception of sensations in a limb or limbs that no longer exist. Phantom limb syndrome occurs commonly in amputees; about 60 to 80 percent of individuals who have undergone amputations have reported this sensation. There are evidences showing that patients have higher likelihood of experiencing the syndrome when undergoes traumatic loss, or there has been pre-existing painful conditions in the limb. Phantom sensation can be observed in those who are born without limbs and in those who are paralyzed as well. In some cases, patient will suffer in severe, debilitating chronic pain. Normally, the pain attack will ameliorated with time. What are the symptoms of phantom limb syndrome? The sensation of the phantom limb can be divide into two groups: the non-painful sensation and the painful sensation. Non-painful sensation: -movements: patients have the feeling that they have voluntarily control of the amputated limb, or even try to pick up something using the missing limb. -external sensation: patients can feel the touch, temperature, pressure, vibration and itch on nonexistent body parts. Painful sensation: The sensations of pain range from burning and shooting pain to feeling tingling “pins & needles” What causes phantom limb syndrome? In a historical perspective, doctors once believed this post-amputation phenomenon was a psychological problem. However, the recent research involve neuroimaging, has showed the...
Words: 433 - Pages: 2
...Adaptation and Our Bodies Blake Savage Jr. American Intercontinental University Abstract Sensory adaptation is one of many incredible functions in our human bodies. We have 5 major senses that we call upon each and every day. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are senses that aid us in our day to day activities. These can also be classified as the proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile and visual systems as well. Each of these senses adapt to the environments around us to help make us more comfortable and to tune out certain annoyances. In the view of evolution, sensory adaptation plays a fairly significant role. Survival of the fittest is usually the test of time and to achieve this trait an animal must adapt to its surroundings and change with it. However, the animal not only needs to change with the environment, it needs to find a way to utilize its senses to better aid it in becoming a top of the food chain animal. Adaptation and Our Bodies When viewing the world we live in we may not readily notice the incredible functions of our bodies on a day to day basis. The fast pace we have grown accustomed to keeps us pre-occupied from really paying attention to the small things that happen around us. Every day we find ourselves being introduced in to an uncomfortable environment. It is the incredible power of our bodies and functions within that adjust to these discomforts and make them more tolerable. This can be defined as Sensory Adaptation. This...
Words: 1226 - Pages: 5
...Activity 1: Matching Type 1. Eyes taste 2. Nose smell 3. Ears hearing 4. Tongue touch 5. Skin sight Activity 1: Matching Type 1. Eyes taste 2. Nose smell 3. Ears hearing 4. Tongue touch 5. Skin sightActivity 1: Matching Type 1. Eyes taste 2. Nose smell 3. Ears hearing 4. Tongue touch 5. Skin sightActivity 1: Matching Type 1. Eyes taste 2. Nose smell 3. Ears hearing 4. Tongue touch 5. Skin sightActivity 1: Matching Type 1. Eyes taste 2. Nose smell 3. Ears hearing 4. Tongue touch 5. Skin sightActivity 2Choose within the box the correct answer for the sensations below. Touch | Taste | Smell | Sight | Hearing | __________1. Taste of ampalaya__________2. Texture of silk cloth__________3...
Words: 1261 - Pages: 6
...Phantom limbs are a phenomenon that those with missing limbs, either amputated or born without, experience. Phantom limbs can make the person with the missing limb feel as if there are movements, paralysis, or pain where the limb use to be or should be. The intended purpose of the experiments that were done is to explain previously unexplored subjects pertaining to the plasticity of the normal human brain. Researchers were interested in a variety of patients, focusing a lot of their interest in patients who faced paralysis in their phantom limb – being unable to move it prior to loosing the limb or because of limb loss. Some patients experienced involuntary movements in their phantom limb, the most common being the clenching spasm. The clenching spasm is when the phantom limb feels as if the nails are digging into the palm (Ramachandran, 1995). Researchers believed that there was a correlation between being able to sense the phantom limb and control it when you can ‘resurrect it’, so they attempted to do just that. To find participants experimenters contacted local prosthesis manufacturers, posted ad’s in newspapers, and took referrals from colleagues. Prior the experiments a neurological work-up was done on all of the participants to make sure they neurologically intact (Ramachandran, 1995). The experiment was initially of interest when conducted on just one person, but this experiment was comprised of 10 people (including the one that sparked initial interest in the idea)...
Words: 729 - Pages: 3
...Lec. 14 Notes Neurophysiology III Introduction: Sensory neurons provide our bodies with information from our surrounding environment. Specialized sensory neurons include: 1. Nerve cells-photoreceptors of the eye/hair cells-olfactory cells of the nose. 2. Nerve endings –naked endings and respond to pain or encapsulated in pacinian corpuscle. 3. Epithelial cells-taste cells on the tongue> these are non-neuronal!! Somatic Senses vs. -involve receptors in the skin, muscles, tendons, joints, and visceral organs. Special Senses -The five senses (details about these later). 1. Exteroceptive senses=changes on the body surface from light, pressure etc. 2. Proprioceptive senses = have to do with the body’s position as well as it’s movement Ex. muscle length/tension, equilibrium etc. 3. Visceroceptive/interoceptive senses=changes in the body’s internal environment. Ex. Blood pressure Types of Stimulus: *Photoreceptors> light *Chemoreceptors>chemicals Ex. Changes in pH, metabolite concentrations etc. *Mechanoreceptors>respond when deformed by mechanical forces. Receptors for sound and balance in the ear also involved with these. *Thermoreceptors> warmth/cold *Nociceptors>pain receptors. Specifically, tissue damage provides stimulus. Definitions: Transduction= the receptor in a cell converts some of the stimulus energy into an electrical signal that provides information for the nervous system. Threshold=minimal level of excitement required for a nerve...
Words: 428 - Pages: 2
...Lab 6: Build Your Own Homunculus Jennifer Roytbak Animal Physiology Lab – PCB4723L Tuesday – 8:00AM Section – 006 February 18th, 2014 Results (cont.) In Figure 1 you can see that the most sensitive spots on both the right and the left side were my lips, tongue, and all my fingers. All had a density of 1 (1/mm) for both sides. The least sensitive spots for both the right and left side were my upper arm, back, and abdomen. The biggest difference for one body part between the right and the left side was my chin. The right side of my chin had a density of .33 mm and my left side had a density of .5 mm. Discussion The human body contains many different sensory receptors on our skin. The purpose of this lab was to determine the density of our own individual touch receptors in different parts of our body. Touch is the most sensitive and arguably the most important of our five senses. Unlike other sensory receptors, such as, smell, taste and sight, touch receptors are found throughout our bodies in different skin and muscle tissues and communicate all through our spinal cord (Angier, 2008). We compared our right side to our left side. Looking at fig. 1 you can see the big differences in density from body part to body part. In some cases, such as the chin, neck, elbow, and palm you can see differences between the right and left side too. For the most part, both sides were pretty even though. My forehead, lips, tongue, lower arm, back of hand, thumb, index fingertip...
Words: 764 - Pages: 4
...To begin with, the film “Eye Contact” deserves 3 to of 5 stars! I believe that it deserves a 3 out of 5 star rating because the purpose of the film was unclear, and the production of the film seemed quite “cheap” to a sense. Furthermore, the characters presented in the film “Eye Contact” are “the Jogger” and “the Shadow”; it is very unclear why “the Jogger” is scared of “the Shadow,” and how “the Shadow” poses a threat to “the Jogger” for “the Jogger” to be scared of “the Shadow”. The action of the film seems to take place in the woods near a beach, in a lighthouse, and then in the house of “the Jogger”. Nothing very clear really happens, “the Jogger” seems to be jogging her morning routine like any-other day, when she reaches the light house she notices a shadow; as she notices the shadow she then begins to head back, and realizes that the shadow is chasing her and this begins to greatly scare her. Moreover, more than any other thought or action, I believe the film maker wants the viewer to feel some sort of pressure or stress while watching and a sense of curiosity at the same time. Moving along, the choice and use of suspense techniques used by the author are very interesting; the literary suspense techniques that the film maker uses are foreshadowing and imagery. In addition, other techniques that the film maker uses that are specific to film are camera angles, types of shots, sound track, and special effects to create suspense. The types of camera angles and types of shots...
Words: 498 - Pages: 2
...R. gives the brain the illusion that the amputated arm is still there. The person puts the non-amputated arm in the box with the mirror and when the person looks into the box, it’s as if they are seeing both limbs. “The mirror image of the normal body part helps reorganize and integrate the mismatch between proprioception and visual feedback of the removed body. Thus, enhancing the treatment effect for phantom limb pain” (Sae Young Kim, MD, Yun Young Kim, MD). This is claimed to be the most effective treatment by many amputees. In the YouTube Video, the young man claimed that the box did indeed help with his phantom pain. This is because “ In this sense, a patient with phantom limb pain can feel the same sense or emotion of his/her normal body part by observing the mirror image. By doing so, it is expected to decrease pain by resolving conflict between motor intention, proprioception and visual system.” Mirror therapy has become the treatment of choice because it is easy to use. It can be done at home at the convenience of the...
Words: 512 - Pages: 3
...CEG 4392 Computer Systems Design Project SENSOR-BASED ROBOT CONTROL Robotics has matured as a system integration engineering field defined by M. Bradley as “the intelligent connection of the perception to action”. Programmable robot manipulators provide the “action” component. A variety of sensors and sensing techniques are available to provide the “perception”. t ROBOTIC SENSING Since the “action” capability is physically interacting with the environment, two types of sensors have to be used in any robotic system: “proprioceptors” for the measurement of the robot’s (internal) parameters; “exteroceptors” for the measurement of its environmental (external, from the robot point of view) parameters. Data from multiple sensors may be further fused into a common representational format (world model). Finally, at the perception level, the world model is analyzed to infer the system and environment state, and to assess the consequences of the robotic system’s actions. 1. Proprioceptors From a mechanical point of view a robot appears as an articulated structure consisting of a series of links interconnected by joints. Each joint is driven by an actuator which can change the relative position of the two links connected by that joint. Proprioceptors are sensors measuring both kinematic and dynamic parameters of the robot. Based on these measurements the control system activates the actuators to exert torques so that the articulated mechanical structure performs the desired...
Words: 2269 - Pages: 10
...Write an essay on your personal experience using tactile cues to facilitate proper breath, axial elongation, organization of head, neck and shoulders, spine articulation and alignment. Make note if you were successful in facilitating desired outcomes. How did you know whether or not you were successful? Touch can help a Pilates student to relax a muscular tension or a contracted structure. Comfortable contact can also help to move a segment or give a proprioception to expand structures like the rig cage during a breathing for example. Most people react with pleasure to the touch of the therapist if it is provided with a non invasive palpation, respectful and not abruptly. The touch should be gentle and firm at the same time. Firm in order to lead a movement, to shape a body structure. When we touch a person we must be connected and focused on the information that we want to give her. It must be a clear intention in the touch that we are given. Should have a communication between the tactile cue and the client, a good touch can lead a correct gesture while transmit a positive energy . We should take care not to force a movement with a touch overdone . We must inform the client's body and motion path with a delicate and precision tactile cue. The more the therapist is connected with the student, with a accurate intention the best will be the conduction of the gesture, facilitating the clients understanding. Excess of touches can confuse the student. Be careful not to touch...
Words: 576 - Pages: 3
...Erisa Hysi Human Philosophy 1311 Sept 07th, 2015 In the 17th question, Article 2, Aquinas is trying to answer the questions related to Falsity, its existence, and the relation to the truth. The question in the second article is more specific if the falsity exist in the sense. The view that Aquinas takes is a different view than the one that sees falsity as in interpretation of our sense data rather in the sense data themselves. Aquinas see falsity exist in the sense only to the extent that truth exists in them too. He says that falsity should be looked for in the senses only to the extent that the truth exists in them, so that we can only say that falsity exists in the senses when they apprehend things otherwise than they actually are. 1 The three ways that Aquinas identifies the likeness of a thing exist in the sense are; primarily and its own nature, secondly and its own nature, and accidentally. The argument that Aquinas arise is that senses can operate in many more ways than simply the apprehension of primary sensation. He seems to be arguing that senses are capable of preprocessing primitive sense data before presented to the intellect. Falsity can exist in the sense only when the sense organ itself is not working properly as he stated in the article: “Hence, for instance, it happens that on account of an unhealthy tongue sweet seems bitter to a sick person” In this case the sense organ itself is not receiving the sensible form correctly. Also, it...
Words: 466 - Pages: 2
...What theory explains the type of pain experienced by the woman described in the scenario? Phantom limb pain is a condition that is experienced by individuals following the loss of a limb by amputation. The sensations may be present or the individual may also experience pain. According to McCance and Huether (2014), an individual is likely to experience pain post amputation if they had pain prior and between 80 and 100% of these individuals experience chronic pain. There are multiple theories used to explain the occurrence of phantom limb pain with no exact theory being solely correct but a combination of elements from each theory creating the basis for the theory (Chapman, 2011). Phantom limb pain is described by individuals as pain consisting of tingling, numbness, burning, cramping, crushing or throbbing pain (Chapman, 2011). The first theory to explain the manifestation of phantom limb pain is the spinal theory which reports the continuous stimulation of the peripheral pain receptors or nociceptors caused by the continuous transmission of pain signals from the area to the spinal cord which causes an increased sensitivity by the central nervous system (CNS). This in turn creates a state of hyper-excitability in the CNS and activates an increase in neuronal firing with changes in the structure of the peripheral sensory neurons that travel to the spinal cord and begins with nerve injuries like amputation (Chapman, 2011). The next theory explains that the severing of nerves modifies...
Words: 635 - Pages: 3
...In 1995, Swanson, L. and his team conducted an experiment, hoping to confirm that phantom limb pain was in fact coming from the two previously mentions sources; neuromas and abnormal discharges in the spinal cord. In their experiment, they used anaesthetics to inhibit the brachial plexus and spinal anaesthesia to reduce pain from the spinal cord in already amputated rats. However, it was reported that 17% of the rats continued to show discomfort, suggesting yet another source for phantom limb pain . A lot of recent research has been focusing in cortical reorganization where many researchers believe most of phantom limb pain originates from. Once amputation of a limb occurs, neurons in that particular limb are severed and no longer are able to communicate and send signals back into the cortex. This part of the cortex that was responsible of receiving signals from the now amputated limb starts to become inactive overtime. fMIR data shows as the inactivation of this particular zone continues, neighboring representational zones in the primary somatosensory cortex and motor cortex begin to take over. This cortex reorganization helps to explain why afferent nociceptive neurons produce the sensation in the missing limb. In support of this claim, an fMRI comparison at Oxford University was done between seven patients with phantom limb pain, seven without pain and seven healthy patients all performing the same task of lip pursing activities . Based on the fMRI data, it showed that the...
Words: 428 - Pages: 2
...I will be covering information regarding the senses, the reasons for believing in the accuracy of sensory. Identify and describe the factors of sensory data. The roles of memory of the evaluation and interpretation of sensory data. When you touch something hot, your senses send a message to your brain to tell you to move your hand so you won’t be burned. Your sense of smell can also tell you there is danger, when you smell smoke or any foul odor like gas, you can trust your accuracy of that sensory. Your sense work the same with you sight, when you see people talking you can tell if they are having a pleasant conversation. Your sensory also can let you know if the person is having an argument just by their body language and tone. Sometime people could see things different due to health reason. Bizarre disorder can mean you can’t believe you your eyes. Brain damage reveals the visual cortex engineer our perception of the world around us. Robson, 8/28/10. After a minor stroke, a lady name BP started to feel as if her eyes were playing tricks on her. TV shows had become very confusing, in one film she was surprised to see a reel character is if she was punched by an invisible man. BP would miss seeing things that were right before her eyes, and this would cause her to bump into different object, like furniture or even people. BP’s stroke had damaged a key part of her visual system rare disorder called simultanagnosia. Robson, 8/28/10, vol 2. This means she often saw just one object...
Words: 682 - Pages: 3
