Course Text:

Goldstein, E. B. (2017). Sensation and Perception. 10th edition. California: Cengage.

Original Question:

By now you've probably noticed in your assigned readings that the study of sensation and perception focuses on things you may have experienced but never given any thought to--for example, the "Purkinje shift".

We don't think much about these phenomena because our world is full of them, and if we had to be conscious of every sensation and its accompanying perception that we ever experienced our brains would have little time for anything else (!) but research scientists have studied them in detail. This leaves us with the question--do these interesting and sometimes odd things matter?

The answer is yes, but why and how varies depending on the particular phenomenon. Because there are real-life phenomena associated with everything discussed in our readings and dialoguing about them can bring theory and fact to life, for the remainder of our forum assignments we will be doing the following:

In the initial forum post, please describe how one of the phenomena mentioned in the readings explains an everyday event that you have experienced or observed and then suggest how this phenomenon might have serious consequences (so first its everyday occurrence and impact and then ways in which it can have serious impact).

For the purpose of this assignment, we will define "serious impact" as something that has negative consequences to health and safety of the self or others rather than something that is inconvenient or embarrassing. Not being able to distinguish colors under certain light may lead to getting home after a shopping trip only to find out an outfit isn't the color you thought it was, which can be inconvenient and/or embarrassing. Not being able to distinguish colors under certain war zone conditions can be safety and life threatening.

Please be specific, thorough and concrete. Adding onto the end of a post a statement or two that something could be a problem is not sufficient. Additionally, saying you don't know of any negative consequences isn't permitted. Doing so will void your forum assignment points.

You will need to explain how the phenomenon specifically has a negative impact. An example, described in Nicholas Wade's 2000 "The Natural History of Vision" is below (NOTE: Because this one has already been applied, you must select another).

Unless discussing one of the more common disorders, like a lack of depth perception or hearing loss, please avoid "I think I have this" syndrome. This is something that medical students often fall prey to in the early years of medical school because they spend so much time studying human disorders, from the very common to the exceedingly rare.

Reply to the following response with 200 words minimum. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post.)

For this week's discussion, I have selected to discuss the phenomenon of: "Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP)" or also known as "Congenital Analgesia." This is a rare condition that inhibits a person from feeling any type of physical pain. This is a condition is genetic and a rare inherited condition.

"About one in a million people are thought to be born without a sense of pain, which results in severe self-inflicted injuries from an early age and can lead to premature death" (Connor, 2017). Our textbook mentioned a similar case; that of Ian Waterman, who when he was 17 years old (in 1971) became ill with flu like symptoms and ended up "losing the ability to feel touch below the neck" (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2017, p. 337).

Doctors determined Ian's condition was a result of an autoimmune reaction and that the neurons that transmitted the signals from his skin, joints, and muscles were destroyed (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2017, p. 337).

In a sense Ian's condition has a relation to the phenomenon of "Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP)," as he too could not feel physical pain (or his body and movements).

CIP is its own unique monster. People who have CIP have had their pain sensors turned off since they were born. They never have felt pain and never will. This is from an inherited gene from the mother and the father, who are "unaffected carriers of the defective gene" (Connor, 2017). It is said that "mutations in the SCN9A gene cause congenital insensitivity to pain" (National Institutes of Health). CIP is described as a "Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathies (HSAN)," as it affects the autonomic nervous system (Sasnur, A., Sasnur, P., & Ghaus-ul, R., 2011).

Could you imagine living and not being able to feel pain? What about having a child that could not feel pain? It's hard enough when you have a crying baby in which you sometimes can't quickly determine the reason for crying; but can assess that there is or is not an injury. Now picture the ever curious toddler that loves to explore and put everything in their mouth, they would not be able to tell if something was hurting them, like touching something hot, or falling out of a tree and breaking an arm. I found an article from BBC News that was about a set of twins that were born with congenital analgesia.

The author, Steven Pete says that his parents first realized something was wrong when he started chewing on his tongue while teething (he ended up losing a quarter of his tongue while teething) and took him in for testing. He spoke about his childhood and the difficulties of not being able to feel pain growing up from a roller skating accident where he didn't know he had a bone poking out of his leg and was covered in blood to even being taken away by Child Protective Services, because people believed he was being abused since he was always hurt (Pete, 2012).

Even as an adult he has had great difficulties. Steven has a great fear (understandably) of internal injuries, such as appendicitis, that he will not be able to feel or become aware of till it's too late. At the time of this article, Steven was anticipating having his leg amputated due to so many injuries in his life. He also mentions his twin brother, Chris, who suffered and was told within a year or so would more than likely be in a wheelchair. Steven believes that is what drove his brother to take his own life, as he loved being active and outdoors. I'd like to close this post with something Steve said that I found moving:

"As for doctors, I think they understand the condition. They just don't understand the human component of it - the psychology of what can happen when you grow up not being able to experience pain." - Steven Pete