Touching with your tongue

Of all the senses, touch is perhaps the least understood.
What makes the touch of a close friend so pleasurable when exactly the same touch delivered by a stranger produces no positive response?
Why do things feel different if we shut our eyes or block our ears?
Why can't we tickle ourselves?
These are some of the questions that scientists are trying to answer.



You can touch (feel) with your whole skin.
That means that you can also use your tongue and mouth.
Little babies examine the world by putting things into their mouth.
They taste it, but also feel it with their lips and tongue.

Did you know that object looks bigger in your mouth than they are for real?
Scientist call this: the 'oral size illusion' - the fact that things in the mouth feel larger than they do when felt by hand.
You can try this yourself with a packet of Fruit Polos or Lifesavers (in the US).
When you do not have them in your home country, chose for a candy with a hole in it.
(In the Netherlands you can use Rolo's.)

Without looking at it, put one of the sweets into your mouth and feel the hole with your tongue.
Guess how big it is and draw a circle that size on a piece of paper.
Then measure the diameter of the circle you have drawn and also the diameter of the hole in a second sweet.
The former will almost certainly be larger.