Why is itching in the body felt elsewhere?

The complexity of our nervous system This situation is actually related to our processing of sensory information.

If a short answer is to be given, this situation is It’s about our brain. Let’s examine the long answer together.

Our skin has dense nerve endings.

These nerve endings sends signals to the brain from various parts of the body and carries sensory information such as touch, temperature and pressure. The distribution of these nerve endings in the body is quite dense. However, nerve density is of course higher in some areas.

each nerveresponsible for transmitting sensory information from a specific region to the central nervous system. These nerves reach the spinal cord through peripheral nerves and signals are carried from the spinal cord to the brain.

There are areas in our body called dermatomes.

Dermatomes, certain Which parts of the body do the spinal nerves come from? They are known as nerve regions that show that they collect sensory information. Each spinal nerve is responsible for a specific area of ​​the body and carries sensory signals from that area to the brain.

Triggering a nerve, to another dermatome area It creates the illusion that a nerve has been triggered. If an area you scratch is transmitted to nearby areas in the spinal cord, you will probably feel a sensory response in another part of your body.

All sensory signals coming from the body surface go to the area of ​​the brain called the somatosensory cortex.

somatosensory cortex, sensory information from different parts of the body It has a map where it is processed. In this cortex, the location of the nerves corresponding to each region of the body in the brain is represented by an arrangement called homunculus.

But in the somatosensory cortex Some parts of the body may be located very close. This causes nerve signals to be confused. In other words, when the brain actually processes the scratching signal coming from one area, it can interpret it as if a signal was coming from another nearby area.

“Cross-talk” in our nervous system is an example of this illusion.

This situation briefly neighboring nerves interacting with each other or it means confusion of nerve pathways. If one nerve becomes too active, neighboring nerves may also be affected.

Finally brain body maphas a structure in which some parts of the body are represented very close to each other. For example, because the face and hand are located side by side on the cortex, sometimes an itch or touch sensation you feel in your hand can also be felt on your face.

Here are all these reasons When you scratch your arm, you can feel the itching on your back or another itch. It makes it felt in very different places.

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