Controlling NeuroSensitivity?

[NathanielZhu]

Around 7 grade, I started to focus on the sensation of touching something that after a while, I can feel sensations without actually touching something. This sensation has grown into something like a "fuzzy, electric, cloud" feeling that I can create just by thinking about it in my arms (and not so anywhere else because I haven't practiced it much). I'm 18 and in college now and I'm majoring in Biochemistry, and I'm really interested in the underlying cause of this sensation (which can feel like it's floating above my skin at times).

What do you think this? I'm banking on my neurons recreating a sensation of touch, but the main question is, can this increase in sensation be measured by scientific devices?

[StriatumPDM]

Hi,

what you describe is nothing else but imagination in the somatosensory modality. When we talk about imagination, we usually think of having a picture or a melody in one's mind without the corresponding visual or auditory input, respectively. But this also works in other sensory systems. Interestingly, a number of fMRI studies have demonstrated that during imagination the same brain areas are "active" like those when the visual, auditory, or mechanical stimulus was actually present. Moreover, this also applies to motor imagination, which is the basis for certain kinds of brain-machine-interfaces.