My Wonder Question

How would a human cope/adapt if they lost their sense of touch, sight, and hearing in order to lead a healthy lifestyle?

How is your question meaningful to you?

I find it fascinating because we rely so much on our senses. There are many people in the world that have lost a sense and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose additional senses. When you are blind you rely on touch and sound to navigate, but if you do not have any of those senses then it is extremely difficult to live. I have had several issues with hurting myself during sports and if I didn’t have my sense of touch or pain, I could break multiple bones and they would never fully heal because I would not notice that I kept damaging it.

Why/how is this question important to others:

So many people use their senses to connect with the world, to explore and to venture into the unknown, but without them, life would be boring. So, there are so many reasons why it is so essential to have these senses and realizing how hard it would be to live without them seems so devastating.

What sub-questions will need to be answered for you to answer your big question?

Sub-question 1:	Sub-question 2:	Sub-question 3:
Does losing one sense improve others?	Would the other senses such as pain, balance, proportion etc. still work?	Which sense is the most difficult to live without?
Sub-question 4:	Sub-question 5:	Sub-question 6:
Would this human be able to live by themselves or would they need care and assistance at all time?	Is it possible to die from this? You would be consistently hurting yourself unintentionally.	How do people cope with losing one sense and would it be similar to losing all sight, hearing, and touch?

Research 

Source 1

Title: What If We Lost Our Senses One After the Other?

Author: Kevin Colacci

Source: Colacci, Kevin. “What If We Lost Our Senses One After the Other?” INSH, 19 Nov. 2018, insh.world/science/what-if-we-lost-our-senses-one-after-the-other/.

Date of publication: November 19^th, 2018

Summary of information: When we lose one sense then we end up relying on our others. For example, when you wanted to cross a street, but you couldn’t see, then you would use your touch and hearing to navigate. You would most likely use a walking stick so you can feel what is around you and listen for cars that may be surrounding you. It would be very difficult with just the loss of one but imagine losing one after the other. All of our senses are extremely essential and without one sense we can manage to cope with our daily life, but sometimes we require assistance. By losing all sight, hearing and touch you would no longer need “some” assistance but most likely require assistance for everything that you do. You could no longer live by yourself because would be practically impossible. You would be constantly walking into objects without noticing. You wouldn’t be aware that you are hurting yourself and this could lead to many harmful situations such as breaking several bones by falling down a set of stairs. Your body would severely damaged and incapable of use, it is even possible that you hurt yourself so badly that you die.

How will this information help you answer your big question or one of your sub-questions?

This question helps me to answer both my main question and my sub-questions “would this human be able to live by themselves or would they need care and assistance at all time?” “is it possible to die from this? You would be consistently hurting yourself unintentionally” and “How do people cope with losing one sense and would it be similar to losing all sight, hearing and touch?” It showed me that living with out certain senses has an enormous impact on your life and your daily activities. We do not notice how often we use them, but with out them, we seem lost. It really helps me to notice how difficult it would be to cope with this sort of issue. It would not be easy, and you would need constant assistance, but it is still possible to live.

Source 2

Title: The brain spreads its sights in the deaf

Author: B. Bower

Source: Bower, B. “The brain spreads its sights in the deaf.” Science News, 23 Sept. 2000, p. 198. Science in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A66356038/GPS?u=43riss&sid=GPS&xid=b25a91b1. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019.

Date of publication: September 23^rd, 2000

Summary of information: In this article, it talked more about the scientific functions of someone who is deaf. How they specifically see the world and how they manage their daily life. Unlike someone who has this sense, they rely more on their other senses to a further extent. They mainly focus on sight to help them navigate their life. This source mentions that deaf people have an “unusually high reliance on peripheral vision.” Because it can be hard for them to notice their surroundings at the moment, they tend to look around the room very carefully before entering the room. It helps them to feel more secure to avoid unwanted surprises. They prioritize their other senses to help them manage their life, these senses do not physically get stronger but they do get sharper because of there constant use. Deaf people will also use more of their left hemisphere because their motion perception is mainly controlled on that side of their brain compared to someone who is not deaf will mainly use their right side. Deaf people work around their life in different ways and are forced to notice their motion sensitivity corresponds to their left hemisphere. They have to find different ways to cope with their activities so they can still live a meaningful life.

How will this information help you answer your big question or one of your sub-questions?

This questions strongly helped me to understand my sub-questions “does losing one sense improve the others?” and “how do people cope with losing one sense and would it be similar to losing all sight, hearing, and touch?” It showed me that our senses do not get stronger or improve, but you do become more aware of them which makes them more effective. It also demonstrated how losing one sense is extremely difficult and how you rely on you other sense. Although if you were to lose more then one sense it would prevent the person from having other senses to rely on. It would become much more difficult and if you consistently kept losing them, it would only become more and more of a hassle to cope with.

Source 3

Title: The Sense of Touch: Hardly Noticed, But Key to Our Survival

Author: Peter Alexandrou and Marios Alexandrou.

Source: Alexandrou, Peter. “The Sense of Touch: Hardly Noticed, But Key to Our Survival.” Infolific, 18 Oct. 2013, infolific.com/health-and-fitness/anatomy-and-physiology/touch/.

Date of publication: October 18, 2013

Summary of information: This website mentioned why touch is one of the most important senses and how life would be without it. There is a fair amount of people who are deaf and blind, but few people who have lost their sense of touch. Although this may be the case, touch tends to be the most often used sense even though we do not notice it. Without the sense of touch, we also lose the sense of pain. We could burn our self and not even feel it. You would be damaging your body with no reaction. You would also lose your sense of balance. You would no longer be able to walk, stand or even sit properly for a period of time because you could not feel the ground that you are standing on or the chair you have sat on. If you did manage to stand up you would most likely fall over and collapse, you could try to get back up, but without knowing how much pressure you are pressing on the floor with your hands, you would be stuck unable to regain your position. In our daily life, we use touch to brush our teeth, eat our food and change our clothes. It would be extremely difficult to adapt to losing the sense of touch because you would almost be paralyzed. You can barely move and live a healthy life. You would also no longer be able to feel the hugs of your loved ones. Hugs are so important because they reduce your stress and increase your happiness. Babies could possibly die if they do not receive enough love and affection from the sense of touch, which demonstrates that touch is useful for so many things that we never realize.

How will this information help you answer your big question or one of your sub-questions?

This question mainly helped me to answer my sub-questions “would the other senses such as pain, balance, proportion etc. still work?” and “which sense is the most difficult to live without?” It helped me to understand which of our senses is the most commonly used and how it practically impossible to adapt to our daily life without the sense of touch and how you would need assistance at all time. This information also helped to answer my main question on how to adapt in certain scenarios.

What’s next?

What further research needs to be done?

I believe I need to go further into depth with all of the senses combined. I have clearly explained all of my sub-questions, but now focusing on my main question, I need to figure out how a human can adapt with all of the senses individually than all of them together and see how they can work together.

Is there a community expert or organization that could help you discover new information?

No, I have not been able to find someone in the community that could help me discover more information about this question.

Can scientific investigation/experiment help you determine an answer?

It is possible that there could be some sort of experiment, but I am not sure exactly what type. We could place deaf, blind and people with no sense of touch, individually into a room and see how they observe their surroundings. After that, we place two of the groups in a room together and see how they communicate to one another and once again observe the room. Finally, we can put all three groups together and repeat the same steps. We then analyze how they have adapted so we can have some sort of beginning and then go from there.

 

Video : https://www.facebook.com/What.If.science/videos/368042867275899/

Pictures :

Creative Commons Picture :

 

Mr. Robinson’s information fluency questions

What questions did you need to research in order to research your question?:

I mainly focused on researching my sub-questions and searching for keywords on gale learning. Several times I researched how people who are deaf, or blind manage their daily life and how they use their other senses. I also tried to search up questions such as “why are our senses so crucial in our daily life” to help me gather information for several of my sub-questions.

What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?:

In this project, I used gale learning from the school’s digital library to help me find more in-depth and scientific information about deaf people and how their brain works differently compared to others.

What was the process you used to investigate the topic?:

When I first started the wonder project I had two strong meaningful questions. I picked the one that I found more interesting and that had more information on it. I brainstormed several sub-questions and chose the ones I thought would help to gather the best information possible. After doing so, I went on the internet and searched for information about my topic.

How did you verify and cite the information you found?:

Each time I found a site that I was going to use, I made sure to fully check if the others name was on the page. If their name is on the page, it shows me that they are proud of their work and they support the information listed. I also checked to make sure that the information on the page was similar to all the other pages that I checked out, to confirm that the information was correct.

How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?:

I think I could have managed my time in class better. I stayed on task during the class, but I never truly focused on a goal, or how much I wanted to get done each day. I ended up having to do quite a bit of the work the night before, where I could have spread out the days I’d worked on it so that I wasn’t stressing at the last minute.