i n K A R E N t
Summery for the semester: I learned several hard lessons. I still have work to do over the the summer, so I'm not even quite done. But at least I'm still in school. I still have my job. And I'm not failing. :) Things will slowly get better. Right on! Yay for summer!.
LINKS:: [the diary][email][middle-man
"One knows of the five simple senses we humans possess. When we learn of these senses, we think of them individually instead of how they work together to perform the most simple of tasks. To keep track of and monitor our position and movement, our body uses the vestibular sense and kinesthesis. To better understand our bodies, we apply what we know about the vestibular system and kinesthesis to sensory restriction. Our body uses the vestibular sense to detect movement. Instead of relying on touch for motion feedback, our body also relies on our inner ear fluid. Substances such as the semicircular canals, vestibular sacs, and the cochlea all rotate when the head moves. The messages from this movement are instantaneously sent to the brain where it is interpreted to be our current balance. Another motion sensory device is the kinesthesis system. By definition, kinesthesis is the system for sensing the position and movement of our body. Simplified, this means our body knows exactly how and where our body is moving all the time. Our brain then processes information from our nerve cells and reports it. Without kinesthesis, it would be extremely difficult to function. One would have to rely on other senses to move about, such as sight. However, missing yet another sense, sensory restriction, it would be nearly impossible to even stand in a dark room. Sensory restriction can be one of several scenarios. The loss of a sense is a possibility. This can happen at birth or during the course of a lifetime. Another sensory restriction is sensory monotony. This occurs when the nerve signals send the same message again an again. A good example of this is truck driving traveling a long distance without sleep. By looking at past experiments, proving the effects of sensory restriction is undoubtedly difficult. A researcher subjected volunteers to a monotonous environment in a "sensory deprivation" experiment. The subjects hallucinated, became disorientated, and became easily manipulated. However, these effects were merely a correlation. Correlation does not prove causation. You see social isolation, stress of confinement and other factors could have produced similar results. After several re-tests, it was proven that sensory restriction does not deeply affect the majority of the population negatively. In fact, it resulted in the contrary. It instead, produced calmness. In further studies, it was found that sensory restriction could be used to control one's self control. This new technique is used for drug abuse victims to overcome their weaknesses. Both smokers and college drinkers yielded productive results after being subjected to REST for a length of time. REST is the method of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy. Commonly it is a dark, quiet room or partially filled tub. Essentially, the difference between the vestibular system and the kinesthesis system is as simple as touch is to the ear. Once one understands these concepts, they can look further into how one can benefit from the lack of these senses. We not only thrive from stimulation, but we require it to survive. However, the disappearance or restriction of senses also proves to be beneficial to our health."