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Proprioception

created by Twiin

(thing) by Twiin (6.8 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Fri May 19 2000 at 19:51:03

The unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself.

(thing) by The Custodian (1.2 d) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 2 C!s Fri Jun 29 2001 at 4:26:49

In a slightly less technical (and yes, therefore less precise) explanation, proprioception is what that nice police officer who stopped you is testing when s/he asks you to spread your arms, look up, and then smoothly touch your nose with your fingertip. It is the 'sense' of knowing where your body (and its various parts) are in space, in relation to other parts of the body or to surrounding objects, without looking. There are neurological disorders that cause a person to lose this 'sense' or ability, forcing them to carefully watch what they are doing at all times so as to have visual feedback. This is probably why The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat is softlinked here; it's an excellent book on such disorders.

Although this sounds like something you'd only use in a dark room, you in fact use it all the time. Touchtyping is proprioceptive. Reaching for a glass of soda while reading and picking it up by touch is proprioception. That quivery feeling on the back of the neck you get when you're walking in a dark hall and you know you're close to the wall - that's proprioception, although an extreme case.

Although there isn't an official name for it, I propose propriocarception for the ability to sense where your back bumper is when parallel parking. (wharfinger: without impact.) momomom notes that with impact, you have parking by Braille.


printable version
chaos

The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Humans have six senses, why does everyone think we only have five? propriocarception Residual Self Image
proprioceptive lag In a world of blind people, c would be the speed of sound The Joy Luck Fight Club PCP receptors
The 6 month decomposition of MS Windows 9x The quickest way to crash Windows 9x do re mi fa so la ti do Vestibular sense
Fist of Legend Klein Sexual Orientation Grid Sixth sense Your brain is a super computer
proprioceptor semicircular canal Wharfinger depth perception
Somatosensory cortex somatosensation x3 Pay It Forward
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