Most of us know about the uncommon features of the human body that not everyone can perform, like wiggling your ears, shaking your eyes sideways really fast, or whistling extremely loudly. There are even the rare ones that almost everyone experiences, like an eye twitching, or the lightheadedness occurring when standing up too fast. The conscious versus the autonomous features.
The latter has been particularly interesting to me in my life as a human being. I have noticed quite a few bizarre phenomenons repeating themselves that I’m quite sure is not just me being wired differently, yet I have barely read or heard anyone else talking about them. So I decided to start listing the ones I know about so far, while also trying to research them on the internet.
Zooming fatigue
I’m sure a better expression could be invented for this. The effect occurs in the exact center of my vision, typically after having exerted myself. I’ll see a transparent zooming tunnel, and it’s most clear to see against the blue sky or even the tarmac. It looks a little like the zooming tunnel you see when space ships are traveling at hyperspeed in Star Wars, although completely colorless.
Back when I was working as a postman, having finished a route and ready to go home, I used to see a strong version of this phenomenon while waiting for the bus. That was many decades ago, but I can still see it today if I have been busy outdoors. I’ve almost never seen it indoors. Maybe the sunlight is required for the effect to be clear? I’m not sure if that makes sense.
Let’s start by getting the obvious explanations out of the way first. No, it’s not floaters. It’s also not the Alice in Wonderland syndrome nor is it the Blue field entoptic phenomenon. It’s difficult finding anything about this on the internet at all. I did find this thread on Reddit that sounds like the same thing, although my version was never purple. As mentioned before, it’s completely colorless to me.
Dream plasma
Sometimes when I lay down to sleep in my bed and close my eyes, the blackness doesn’t persist for long. At one point I see large blotches of slightly lighter or darker areas, pushing themselves around my entire field of vision. Even the darkest of rooms can’t prevent me from detecting it. If you have ever seen a computer demo effect called plasma, it’s a little bit like that – although colorless and without any texture.
The funny thing is that as soon as the phenomenon occurs, I know it won’t be long before I fall asleep. That has led me to come up with a theory. I believe this is an autonomous version of counting sheep. It guides my imagination and sort of hypnotizes me to sleep. It doesn’t occur immediately when I lay down, and when it does occur, it instantly goes away if I move a body part. Like scratching an itch.
Then I lay still and wait a little bit – and the dream plasma starts again.
Searching the internet, I think I can safely rule out Phosphenes. It’s also not afterimages – I know how that works and this is entirely different due to the blotches moving around. Those effects doesn’t seem to be able to turn on and off like the dream plasma.
Beeping ear
This one is not as mysterious as the previous two phenomenons, but quite odd nevertheless. It can occur at any time while I’m awake. Suddenly a high frequency beep is heard in the left or right ear, but never both. It lasts for approximately 3 or 4 seconds and then fades out slowly. I have tinnitus, and while the beeping is heard, it actually manages to turn this off completely.
Unfortunately the tinnitus returns as soon as the beeping subsides.
One thing that always fascinates me is the computer-like precision of the beeping sound. It doesn’t rise or fall, nor does it modulate in any way. It’s just like a very simple high pitched beep as if coming from a piezoelectric loudspeaker. Every time it occurs, it makes me feel like a robot.
It’s easy to find something about this when searching the internet, but strangely Wikipedia doesn’t seem to have a dedicated page for this phenomenon. I don’t believe it should be compared to tinnitus.
Whistle yawning
I yawn way more than most people. Sometimes 20 or 30 times a day – if not even more. In fact, I yawn so much at work that one of my colleagues often comments on it. Some people might get sick when sitting in the back seat of a car, but I just yawn a lot more instead.
I don’t mind that at all. I’d rather be yawning all the time than being sick.
It’s funny how I almost never fail to let out a yawn if I try to whistle a song. It always cuts it short. Probably a good thing I became a software tester instead of pursuing a career as a professional whistler.
Maybe I have slightly underdeveloped lungs, requiring me to frequently yawn in order to get more oxygen? I know my mother had a weird breathing and her lungs regularly betrayed her towards her oldest days. So it might be a genetic thing. But it could also just be a bad habit.
If I research the internet, I immediately get a list of possible reasons such as fatigue, body temperature malfunctions or stimulation of the vagus nerve. Some even claim we’re not yawning because of lacking O2. One thing is for sure, it’s not necessarily because I’m tired and need sleep. One of my friends work like clockwork regarding that. If I hear him yawning, I know it won’t be long until he is lying down.
Calcium joints
I have periods of days where I might take vitamin D to make sure my body get what it needs. After all, I am a computer nerd and thus probably don’t always get the sunlight I’m supposed to.
When I have been taking the pills for too many days in a row, I seem to get pains in my right shoulder and elbow. I got this even faster when I tried taking both calcium and vitamin D a few years ago. Then I drop the vitamin for some time and the pain goes away.
Vitamin D helps the calcium being absorbed by the intestines and bones. However, I have also heard that excessive amounts of calcium might be stored away in joints making them ache. A simple internet search reveals that too much vitamin D is toxic. It builds up the amount of calcium in the blood. This is called hypercalcemia. This can cause a long list of symptoms, one of which is can lead to bone pain.
Nevertheless, whenever I mentioned taking too much vitamin D as the cause of my aching joints, my doctor always looked at me funny. Maybe he was wondering if I was into conspiracy theories too.
Aura migraine
This is another one that is actually well documented, but there’s a twist to it in our family. All of us siblings gets this migraine sometimes. For me it’s the standard visual disturbance where a colored zigzag thread starts building up somewhere in my vision, eventually getting really long and slowly moving to a different area of my vision. I can even prevent me from reading.
Luckily, it’s harmless and usually only last about half an hour.
As mentioned it’s well documented and Wikipedia even has a detailed article about it. The article mentions that the aura of migraine is visual in the vast majority of cases, because dysfunction starts from the visual cortex. That is certainly true for me, and one of my close friends also gets it the same way.
My brother is hit differently. When he gets it, the part of his brain that handles language is affected instead. He actually loses the ability to speak and understand speech while the aura migraine is ongoing. His own daughter can be talking to him and he is reacting as if an alien had landed and tried talking to him.
Aphantasia
Aphantasia is a renewed discovery that is now well documented and also has an article on Wikipedia. As the article describes, it’s the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images. In other words, some people can’t imagine an object in front of them. I’m glad that the article shows an image of various degrading stages of this phenomenon, because I think I have about 80-90% of this.
I can to some degree imagine, say, my living room and contemplate where the furniture should be, but the imagery is extremely vague. I usually say that I can imagine the idea of imagining something, if that makes any sense. I’ve heard that some men can actually imagine an object in front of them so vividly, they can rotate it and solve 3D puzzles this way. I can’t even get anywhere close to that level.
What I do have is a vivid internal voice.
I can hear myself talking in my brain whenever I want to, and in any pitch. Sometimes music too. That has led me to wonder if this is sort of a balancing act. Maybe you can have the ability to imagine objects vividly, but then the internal voice is weak – or vice versa. Sort of like in an video game with two vertical bars on a machine, where raising one bar lowers the other at the same time.
I’ve never been the hardcore bookworm I always wanted to be. I’ve read a fair share of books, including a lot by Stephen King, but I have always had a hard time putting the words into internal images. Not only do I now think my severe level of Aphantasia is to blame for this, I also believe it’s the reason I’ve never enjoyed books as much as graphical novels or comics. My bookshelves are teeming with the latter.
Foot cramps
I absolutely hate getting calf cramps, especially in the middle of the night. It’s a one hell of a way to be awakened, and for that reason I always stretch my legs before I go to bed. Since I started doing that years ago, I’ve virtually never had any calf cramps at all. So that comes with my highest recommendations.
However, there’s another form of cramp that I actually kind of like – foot cramps!
Typically I’m sitting on my sofa in the evening, watching television, and an vague tendency of cramps in the instep of my feet occurs. Instead of wiggling my feet to immediately get rid of it, I enforce it by curling my feet down. The cramp gets a good hold of the feet and the muscles are locked for a few minutes.
I admit it’s actually too much of a muscle lock and slightly painful, but the reason I let it happen is because of how wonderful it feels when the muscles finally ease up. It’s like a quick motion video clip of a flower blooming, and that relief is why I’m doing it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as calf cramps or I would never succumb to it. I just wish the muscles didn’t lock down as hard as they do.
Fast nonsense syllable sounds
My brother and I have something in common – we can perform long sentences of syllables really fast. Think Scatman John, although my brother’s girlfriend actually thinks it sounds like birds instead.
I’m starting to think there may be either talent or training involved, or maybe even both, because our sister absolutely can’t do it. When she tries it sounds like a stiff slow motion version of our nonsense.
Which leads me to…
Artistic boundaries
I absolutely believe in talent. Yes, you can have your 10000 hours of practice and get better at anything, but I believe you can get there faster with talent and also go beyond with a display of skills no amount of training can give you. Of course, this probably depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
But no such thing as talent? I do not agree.
I know from personal experience that I have “walls” I hit whenever I try training myself to be better at certain things. I’ve tried learning to draw and to play the piano for years, yet in both cases it always feels like I hit this “wall” and then it gets so much more difficult to get any further. Maybe it’s not a dead end, but it sure feels like it. It’s like there’s an ounce of talent missing. Now I need to work really hard.
It’s a good thing I’ve had much better luck with coding and web design.
Limited memory
I wish our short-term memory had a bigger RAM size.
Sometimes I might daydream something that feels important and I want to finish that thought. Then I get distracted and think of something else, and when I want to return to the previous thought, it’s gone. It feels like it was shoved out of the short-term memory like data scrolling out of a computer screen. I then have to recreate what triggered the original daydream to get it back.
Can I get an expansion pack, please?
Creative bowel movement
One thing that almost never fails to happen is when I need to talk to a horse. That’s an expression for having to go to the toilet for doing number two. I’ve used it since I read it on Reddit one day.
Anyway, I can sit by my computer and browse the internet. I need to code or compose or design or write something, but I’m procrastinating. Then I finally pull myself together and start doing the creative bit. Most of the time it doesn’t even take a minute or two, then I have to talk to that horse.
It’s almost as if my stomach brain picks up on hormones being produced because of my enjoyment of being creative. Ah, he’s doing something creative now? Then he certainly has time for the toilet too!
One comment on “Uncanny Features of the Human Body”