I'm not sure what this ability is called?

Quantum Quack

Quantum Quack

Life's a tease...
Valued Senior Member
Hi,
if some one can help my with the term used for this ability I would appreciate it.
It is simply the ability of our minds to "point" our awareness to what ever part of the body we choose to point to.

For example pointing to my right toe, specifically the tip of it. Or pointing to my index finger on my right hand prior to moving it.

I am sure this is a really easy question for someone who knows anything about neurology.

I am researching how this ability applies to memories and imagination and the application of energy.

Please help if you can. A link would be great.

Thanks in advance
 
Not sure of the term. Are usure a psychologist wouldn't know more about this than a neurologist?!

Anyway some info:

We actually have 2 types of awareness: subconscious and conscious. When we hurt ourselves doing something it is the subconscious awareness of our body that alerts our conscious awareness to then notice it. When we voluntariyl "point", as u say, our awareness to a body part, we invite our conscious awareness to the part for some othe (conscious) reason.
 
When a person suffers paralysis such as quadraplegia....they are unable to sense the body parts effected therefore they are unable to move that part.....I am not sure I got that right.....but the point is if you can't point to it properly you can't move it I guess.

Numbness could also show an inability to be aware of the part in the normal way.

perception , awareness, and energy are intrinsically connected. And I feeel that how that energy is utilised is in a lot of ways determined by our conscouis will ( pointing) based on that awareness and the quality of.
 
Awareness does require the senses. And th senses require a working nervous system. This is missing in your above case so the only awareness one caould have of the body part is just by looking at it. Thats a way of focussing your awareness on it!

I don't understand what u mean by energy in your last post. U never explained that
 
Uh, I believe it's called "focus", and last time I checked it's not a special ability or anything.
 
I don't understand what u mean by energy in your last post. U never explained that
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John,
To move a muscle one must be aware of it but also this awareness allows you to control the amount of energy needed to do the task you want.

To run for example you will your muscles to move in a certain way this requires awareness and also the ability to instruct energy in a way to achieve the movement you want.

Of course this is all co-ordinated after many years of learning etc. But awareness is essential plus the delivery of energy to do the job required.

if you can't deliver the energy you can't move the muscles if you are not aware of the muscle you can't deliver the energy and so on.

I hope that makes more sense

Alpha,
Surely there is some fancy latin medical term for this paticular will over body function.....
 
well there is usually a temporary reserve of ATP (I think) whichthe body drws on for its most immediate tasks. Through learning, it does seem to draw on the optimal ATP supply for the task at hand.
 
well there is usually a temporary reserve of ATP (I think) whichthe body drws on for its most immediate tasks. Through learning, it does seem to draw on the optimal ATP supply for the task at hand.
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and in most cases this is subject to the will of the person based on his awareness of that muscle need.
 
another example would be a person about to lift weights in a gymn.

he has to lift say 100 kgs and he by force of will applies energy based on his awareness.
 
When a person suffers paralysis such as quadraplegia....they are unable to sense the body parts effected therefore they are unable to move that part.....I am not sure I got that right.....but the point is if you can't point to it properly you can't move it I guess.
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Yes, you don't have that right. When a person suffers paralysis, the nerve impulses do not reach the muscles. This is why they can't move it. It has nothing to do with sensing the part. There is a term for this "body-sense". It is called proprioception. It utilizes nerve signals from joints, tendons, and muscles to tell us where our bodies are and what they are doing. If for some reason these nerve signals are blocked (or if the part of the brain that handles them is damaged), then we become dispossessed. Our body is not ours. We are disembodied. This condition does not inspire paralysis. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The hands and arms flutter about. They wander unless you keep an eye on them. I posted this in another thread, but I'll repeat it in here. I find this extremely fascinating.

It has been suggested that "proprioception", the ability to know where parts of the body are without visual confirmation, is located in the left parietal hemisphere. Patients with this area of damage will generally point to the incorrect part of the body when asked to locate another specific part:

"She could scarcely even sit up - her body 'gave way'. Her face was oddly expressionless and slack, her jaw fell open, even her vocal posture was gone.
"Something awful's happened ," she mouthed, in a ghostly flat voice. "I can't feel my body. I feel weird - disembodied."

This was an amazing thing to hear, confounded, confounding. "Disembodied" - was she crazy? But what of her physical state then? The collapse of tone and muscle posture, from top to toe; the wandering of her hands, which she seemed unaware of; the flailing and overshooting, as if she were receiving no information from the periphery, as if the control loops for tone and movement had catastrophically broken down…

…"What I must do then," she said slowly, "is use vision, use my eyes, in every situation where I used - what do you call it? - proprioception before. I've already noticed," she added, musingly, "that I may 'lose' my arms. I think they're in one place, and I find that they're in another. This "proprioception" is like the eyes of the body, the way the body sees itself. And if it goes, as it's gone with me, it's like the body's blind. My body can't "see" itself if it's lost it's eyes, right? So, I have to watch it - be it's eyes. Right?"

Oliver Sacks - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. P45-46.
http://www.23nlpeople.com/sensory_motor_cortex.htm
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She had to substitute her eyes for her body's sense. She eventually got quite good at it. The mind is able to adapt quite well, given time.
 
thanks for that Invert Nexus I think you have given me the term I was looking for.....proprioception and a handy link .......thanks for that.......and thanks John and Alpha
 
Just a note,
I have done a bit of searching and yes propriorception is in fact a big part of the puzzle I am working through.

It is interesting to note that the brain structures for this faculty are close in proximity and often have "overflow" to and from our sexual centres.
The thinking
This is part of the study of Chakra esoterics ( eastern concepts of energy )

The sexual centres (in particular the sacral chakra) are primary in the energy functions of the body and the link between balance, awareness, and energy then onto movement ( including the movement of the eyes - focus inc.)and thought including memory.

It could be futher extrapulated that the act of thinking is also heavilly influence by our proprioception and if suffering a loss of this faculty the ability to think and remember and even imagine could also be impaired and not just "major" muscle co-ordination as given by Invert Nexus's example....

further it could be a major cause for mental health issues
 
Alpha,
Surely there is some fancy latin medical term for this paticular will over body function.....
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"It is simply the ability of our minds to 'point' our awareness to what ever part of the body we choose to point to."

Sounded like you're just shifting your focus/wareness from one area to another. No indication why you would consider that an ability, and why would there be some special term for it.
Or "conscious awareness".
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One's conscious awareness of a specific thing is focus.
 
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.

Love that book. Lots of really bizarre neurological afflictions. Definitely a must read for fans of all that's kooky in ths head.
 
Alpha,
This ability to point your awareness, consciousness or even you eyes to a target of interest is fundamnetal to what and who you are.
it is your expression of your freewill. It is the very root of your individuality.
If this system of priorproception and neurology is abnormal your freewill to move as you want and to think as you want are greatly diminished.

You would not be able to type your posts or frame a coherant thought.

You would not be able to find a memory or choose what to look at.

Your ability to focus your hearing on a sound would dissappear and you would be unable to focus on the touch of a loving hand nor feel the warmth in you groin or heart.

So yes you are right it is no significant ability in our minds because it is our minds expression. It is our most fundamental ability but also it is an ability we most take for granted. ( and so we should )
 
"I think that the brain is the most fascinating organ in the human body. Then again, look at what's telling me that."
~Emo Phillips
 
Vert:
Yes, you don't have that right. When a person suffers paralysis, the nerve impulses do not reach the muscles. This is why they can't move it. It has nothing to do with sensing the part. There is a term for this "body-sense". It is called proprioception. It utilizes nerve signals from joints, tendons, and muscles to tell us where our bodies are and what they are doing. If for some reason these nerve signals are blocked (or if the part of the brain that handles them is damaged), then we become dispossessed. Our body is not ours. We are disembodied. This condition does not inspire paralysis. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The hands and arms flutter about. They wander unless you keep an eye on them. I posted this in another thread, but I'll repeat it in here. I find this extremely fascinating.
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That's right- it answers Quantum Q's thread succinctly and alas, I'm too late.


Propioception- a spatial ability of our pareital lobes. What else can I add to this? Nothing, and what you've said here is certainly not what a little boy here "was trying to say but more elegentally".
I'm sure we can both sniff out a charlatty dilentante, yes?

Akinetic mutism, or in other words a vigilant coma is another fascinating condition in which free will comes in question. One is literally trapped within one's body, able to pyschologically move one's limbs around but nothing happens. This is fascinating in that the hold one feels on one's body and Soul is nothing in the face of dissociative pathologies such as these.
Turrets- another form of self-divorce.

In a nutshell before rambling: proprioception. From the Latin of propio, meaning "self" or "own" (I think, as in " mi propria alma"- my own soul) and ception, the awareness of that.
 
so gendanken would yo agree with my previous statements about this fundamental ability being intrinsically our most important?
 
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