You will need:
- Willing participants
- Toothpicks
- Ruler with a millimetre scale
We always talk about our five senses, but
the sense of touch is often overlooked and considered not so important as the others.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Ask your friend to close his/her eyes.
2. Identify 3-4 areas (such as the index finger, knee, arm, toe or hand).
3. Taking one area at a time, start with the arm. Make sure that both the toothpicks land on the test area at the same time.
4. Use your 2 toothpicks to press lightly on the skin of the arm of your volunteer.
5. Make sure the toothpicks are at least 5 cm apart when you begin.
6. Ask the volunteer how many toothpicks they can feel.
7. Keep moving the toothpicks closer to one another, constantly asking them how many toothpicks they can feel.
8. At some point, even though you are pressing 2 toothpicks, they will be able to feel only one point. Measure the distance.
9. Conduct the same procedure, with the toothpicks 5 cm apart on the hand, then finger, then knee and finally toe.
10. Keep recording the distance when your friend can feel on one toothpick in spite of there being two.
RESULT
The distance when your friend can feel one toothpick in the arm will be bigger than the distance in the finger. In other words, the level of sensitivity in the arm is much lesser than it is in the finger, meaning there are more sensory receptors present in the finger than in the arm which relay any external stimuli to the spinal cord and brain in the form of electrical impulses.
