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Diogeneselcinico42 t1_j6f7oen wrote

Proprioception.

Your mind knows where your hand is at all times and will tense up against the pressure you apply.

When someone else massages you, your body does not know exactly where there hands are and so will keep the muscles relaxed.

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Jojeco t1_j6f8q6y wrote

I assume this is related to the rain you can't tickle yourself. Thanks for an actual word to refer to about it.

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Adventurous-Tour-981 OP t1_j6hal0k wrote

So imagine without proprioception you would massage yourself all day long

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fescil t1_j6ijqxx wrote

You would also stab and bash yourself with things all day long, man. Come on

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MuchFaithInDoge t1_j6jzfwo wrote

This has happened in extremely rare cases. It reveals how essential proprioception is for everyday movement. After losing his propioception Ian was completely immobilized and had to painstakingly relearn how to move by consciously tensing muscle groups. To this day every movement he makes requires complete focus and visual contact with each part he is trying to move. Basically he bootstrapped a worse form of proprioception via vision.

https://blog.oup.com/2016/06/movement-without-touch-ian-waterman/

He was interviewed on a radiolab episode which is where I heard of him: https://radiolab.org/episodes/91524-where-am-i I especially like the story of how he once saw a pretty girl and the split second of erotic mental imagery caused him to collapse on the ground 🤣

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