Is there any science behind pucker factor?

[3RRL]

There must be a greater force that blows up the pucker?

 

[RobJ]

There must be a greater force that blows up the pucker?

And Rob it's in your sig man!!!

Rob-
...The Older I get...the Better I Used to be...

Read,

The Older I get, the Better my pucker Used to be.

The Older I get, the Better my Depends work.

The Older I get, ....?????.....what was I saying?

 

[N80]

Im not getting this at all...if theres pucker then how can things go brown?

Not puckering enough, obviously.

 

[N80]

Well I can't go along with this. It all starts with our senses.

I didn't think I ever suggested that it was separated from our senses. We can only perceive danger through our senses. But there are different routes by which these sensory inputs are routed. If you put your hand on hot burner, you will withdraw your hand before your brain was even aware that there was a painful stimuli. This occurs via a reflex that does not involve the brain at all. But this does not mean that the process was exclusive of sensory input.

The one TELLING our brain what is going on. So you shoot a gun at a person and they don't jump, they are blind and can't see what is happening.

Sure the blind guy jumps. He hears a bang and he jumps. Not only that, he jumps before his brain even process the fact that the bang has come from a gun.

You sneak up behind someone and say boo....they don't jump...they are deaf(or they are really relaxed!! ).

Again, I did not mean to imply that reacting to danger was exclusive of sensory input. Comatose people often don't react to anything.

If someone points a gun at you and you flinch, your reaction starts with the visual messages sent to the brain,

Of course.

Interestingly, people who have damage to the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli are technically blind. They see no light, no color, no thing. But their eyes and optic nerves are fine. And the reflex pathways are intact. If you throw something at them they will duck....and not know why.

And for the record, I see the pucker factor as a figure of speach.

Well, it is a figure of speech but it also describes a physiologic process. It may not describe the process accurately, but that doesn't mean there is no process.

Only time I get the pucker factor for real is if I got ahold of some really bad food.

Maybe you have an undeveloped sense of self preservation. Or maybe you have been blessed with never having been in a potentially dangerous situation. You might want to invest in a tilt meter that gives you a mild electric shock in the butt whenever it goes past a certain point.

 

[putt_putt_green]

Interestingly, people who have damage to the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli are technically blind. They see no light, no color, no thing. But their eyes and optic nerves are fine. And the reflex pathways are intact. If you throw something at them they will duck....and not know why.

This is very interesting indeed.

Being half deaf in each ear all my life, someone walking up behind me and saying boo does not scare me because I don't expect to hear someone walking up behind me. Is there anything similarly interesting for the ears? Because my ears work perfectly fine, its just I was born with damaged nerves (so I was told) going from my ears to my brain. It would be cool if I ducked because my ears reacted to something my brain didn't get the message from my ears.

 

[RobJ]

hehe, George I get the figure or speach pucker factor when on a hill. But only a real pucker factor on bad food.

I'm no biologist and I'll bow out of this part of the discussion after this comment. To my understanding there are voluntary and involuntary actions(reflexes may or may not be different), but the brain controls theml. You can't die from holding your breath, you can't stop your heartbeat.

There are a couple reflexes the brain doesn't control, take the knee kick reflex. But my hand will not withdraw from a burner like two magnets close together. I can override the pain my senses are telling my brain and hold my hand on the fire. Yep it'll hurt.

But you have to agree that our senses and brain can fool us or cause us to make a incorrect decision. Lets say physics says my tractor with me on it will not roll on a smooth surface until I hit 30 degrees. But my senses and brain says I'm jumping off at 20!!! 15!!!

OK I'm quiet for a while.

OK one edit...

"If you put your hand on hot burner, you will withdraw your hand before your brain was even aware that there was a painful stimuli. This occurs via a reflex that does not involve the brain at all"

If this was true then I'd never burn myself right? My reflex would prevent it. But yet I still play with matches.

 

[jimg]

OK, but he didnt mention anything about the antipucker response.

 

[Rara Avis]

Everything you wanted to know about risk taking...
Risktaking.co.uk - why take risks? The psychology of risk taking

Gresham College | Audio and Video

 

[N80]

It would be cool if I ducked because my ears reacted to something my brain didn't get the message from my ears.

I don't think there is a similar pathway for hearing, but it might be possible (I am not a neurologist by the way). But, with the vision thing, it is only the cerebral cortex that is damaged. The eye AND the optic nerve are intact. If your acoustic nerve is damaged, it would make that sort of ducking response impossible since no signal, or at least less signal, is reaching the brain.

 

[N80]

To my understanding there are voluntary and involuntary actions(reflexes may or may not be different), but the brain controls theml. You can't die from holding your breath, you can't stop your heartbeat.

These are different issues. You don't die from holding your breath because you lose consciousness and then start breathing automatically. But you CAN voluntarily control breathing. As for heart, no you can't stop it, but some can control it with biofeedback. There are also numerous 'reflexes' which can be voluntarily stimulated to change heart rate.

There are a couple reflexes the brain doesn't control, take the knee kick reflex. But my hand will not withdraw from a burner like two magnets close together. I can override the pain my senses are telling my brain and hold my hand on the fire. Yep it'll hurt.

Well, that's right and wrong. The problem is that we're talking about these systems as if they exist only by themselves. Yes, you can overrride the pain and hold your hand on a burner....well, some people can....I can't. But at the same time, if something burning hot touches your finger without your brain being aware that it is going to happen, you cannot voluntarily keep your hand from jerking away. This is called a spinal reflex and like I said, it occurs without the help of the brain. The signal goes from the sensory fibers in your finger to the spinal cord and then directly to the motor fibers in your finger/hand. The signal also travels to the brain but the reflex pathway causes you to jerk before the brain has even processed the sensory input. You have no more cognitive control of this process than you do of the typical knee jerk reflex. But, if you know that it is coming you might be able to voluntarily override the reflex, but maybe not.

But again, most of the times all of these systems are working together with multiple senses and how they interact is enormously complex. Still, it is important to understand that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of reflexes that are designed to protect us that require no input or output from the brain whatsoever.

But you have to agree that our senses and brain can fool us or cause us to make a incorrect decision. Lets say physics says my tractor with me on it will not roll on a smooth surface until I hit 30 degrees. But my senses and brain says I'm jumping off at 20!!! 15!!!

Sure. Our brains and our sensory organs and our reflexes can get things wrong. That's why I puckered so bad when I thought my tractor was rolling. But it didn't roll. That's why I got the heebeejeebees after that branch fell even though the danger was over by then.

"If you put your hand on hot burner, you will withdraw your hand before your brain was even aware that there was a painful stimuli. This occurs via a reflex that does not involve the brain at all"

If this was true then I'd never burn myself right? My reflex would prevent it. But yet I still play with matches.

If the source is hot enough you'll get burned before you can react.