Messed up heat and cold sense

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-02-12 08:00am

Does anyone have a good explanation why extreme cold feels warm and extreme heat feels cold?

Yep I have been doing wierd things today, sticking my hand in freezing spray that is... Felt nicely warm even though ice formed on it. Now (2 hours later) it's hurting a little bit like normal burns though, but nothing serious.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-02-12 08:09am

You are weird.

Sokartawi · Post by **Sokartawi** » 2004-02-12 08:35am

Thank you.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-12 09:10am

I've read things about this before. I can't remember exactly what causes it, but I think it has to do with sensory overload being interpreted by your brain as a single sensation rather than two distinct hot-cold feelings. OR it could be that when you overload one sense (cold, let's say) the warm sensation has nothing to balance out the feelings it's getting, so you're left with a mildly stimulated warmth sensation and a numbed cold sensation.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-02-12 09:25am

You do know that fristbite is dangerous? Do try to avoid deepfreezing your hand will ya?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-12 09:27am

Well there is no hot and cold, it's just variations of temperature. So I'm guessing the brain sees it this way and can't differentiate and modifies the signal somewhat.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-02-12 09:35am

See, what youn need to do is find a tank of nitrogen. Open the nozzle and stick your hand in the spray. It'll get really hot, or at least feel really hot, for a few seconds before your nerve endings die and you loose your hand.

OK, no, don't do this, but yes, really cold things 'burn' you.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2004-02-12 09:38am

The default feeling for damaged hot/cold sensory nerves might be "burn".

*shrug*