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Radiolab / May 05, 2006 / The Butcher's Assistant

The Butcher's Assistant

Friday, May 05, 2006
Ian Waterman, seated, undergoing testing to see if his lack of propriaception gives him a special tolerence for high g-forces. The conclusion: no, it does not. He got severe motion sickness.
Ian Waterman, seated, undergoing testing to see if his lack of propriaception gives him a special tolerence for high g-forces. The conclusion: no, it does not. He got severe motion sickness.

There's a sense so essential to our everyday functioning, it is almost impossible to describe beyond... simply being. Or existing, physically. Called proprioception, and sometimes referred to as the sixth sense, it is the sense that the body uses to detect itself. Radio Lab talks to one man and his doctor who have an interesting vantage point for explaining this sense. Ian Waterman (picture at right, seated, during a research trial) can describe this sense so accurately because he is one of the few people in the world to have lost it. Ian and his doctor, Jonathan Cole, pressed themselved into the world's smallest BBC recording booth to talk to us about what Ian doesn't feel.

» Cole's book, Pride and a Daily Marathon


Comments

  • [1] Sean Hennessey from Lancaster, PA USA August 06, 2007 - 10:57AM

    Hey, first and foremost, I love your show! I sync at work with friends to listen to the show. I was wondering where you get your music, or if there is a way I could know what artists you use? like towards the end of this segment , the ambient music?

    Thanks so much,

    - Sean

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