Thought. Do we really feel it in our brains?

Factual Questions
1

When I think about anything, I feel/sense that the thought is inside my head and not for example in my ankle or middle finger. But do I really feel it? Or is it just an illusion caused by the fact that 4 out of our 5 sense “input organs” are located on the head, and because we know that all the thinking job is done in the brains?

2

No cite, but I’ve heard that the ancient Chinese experienced their thoughs in their stomachs. I don’t know whether to believe this (I am highly skeptical), but I thought I’d toss it out.

3

It may just be an illusion because in these modern times we know, from medical science, that thought occurs in the brain.

The egyptions thought that all thought and feeling occurred in the heart. So when it came time to embalm their dead, the heart was left in, and the brain was taken out because it was thought of as a useless organ.

4

What an excellent, interesting question. I’ve also wondered conversely (sort of) - why we “feel” emotions in our chest. E.g. emotional pain seems to reside more in the chest than in the head.

5

Mind-Body Problem of Philsophy

6

I know that when I think, I feel a slight pressure in my head that immediately goes away when I stop thinking very much… maybe its a tumor?:smack:

7

I think it’s because four out of the five major sense organs – eyes, ears, nose, and tongue – are located on the head in close proximity to the brain so we tend to perceive the world from that physical vantage point. And since thoughts aren’t much more than phantom sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, it makes sense that they seem to be centered where we normally perceive them as originating.

8
      • You don’t feel anything in your brain.
        :smiley:
        ~
9

i really like the recent idea that conciousness resides in the electrical field AROUND the brain rather than in the brain itself That would explain why no one has been able to find a particular structure or area in the brain that can be called the seat of conciousness.

10

actually, you feel everything in your brain. your tactile nerves send information up to your brain, which processes the input, and then overlays the sensations onto the kinesthetic map in your head.

funky, i know.

jb

11

A more likely explanation is that there isn’t any particular “seat of conciousness”.