# What is the term for this kind of effect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2010, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586 "2010-09-13T10:43:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/1 "2010-09-13T10:43:38Z")
This is proving hard to Google since I don’t know the term. When I get my haircut and the barber is going around my ears with the clippers (without attachment) I feel a strong tingling sensation in my buttocks. Before anyone says anything it has nothing to do with any attraction to the octogenarian barber. I’m fairly sure that there is a term for this kind of thing, where pressure in one place leads to a sensation is a completely different part of the body. It’s a bit like phantom limb syndrome but that isn’t really applicable here. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/2 "2010-09-13T17:12:08Z")
The ear-buttocks effect ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/3 "2010-09-13T18:16:15Z")
Referred sensation? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/4 "2010-09-13T18:19:21Z")
Oh, hey, I get that too! (When my hairdresser uses the scissors there.) It’s kind of a shivery tingle. I do have a hot lady hairdresser, but I am not a lesbian. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/5 "2010-09-13T18:46:12Z")
When I worked in a neurobiology lab many years ago, I called it “crosstalk” but that’s a generic engineering term for when signals from one source get coupled into the signal path for something else. It is quite common, and occurs more frequently when nerves go into the same nerve bundle. For example, people with sore throats often feel itching in their ears because the nerves that go to the ears and the throat end up in the same nerve bundle. There may be a biological term for it, but the neurobiologist I worked for always understood what I meant when I called it crosstalk. ---
**Author:** ![CrimeThink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90db22/32.png) [@CrimeThink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrimeThink)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/6 "2010-09-13T19:47:31Z")
When I clean my belly button I feel a sensation at the tip of my penis. Is this a common thing? I’d Google it but I’m at work. I used to get the same sensation as a kid sometimes when I was on a swing or see-saw. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/7 "2010-09-13T20:00:32Z")
Put on headphones and you can get the similar effect with [this virtual stereoscopic haircut](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaEo3yzY-Jk#t=02m45s)on youtube: ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/8 "2010-09-13T20:35:51Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > Put on headphones and you can get the similar effect with [this virtual stereoscopic haircut](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaEo3yzY-Jk#t=02m45s)on youtube: That didn’t do anything, I guess it is the vibrating that triggers it rather than the sound. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/9 "2010-09-13T22:48:07Z")
I’d speculate that it has similar origins to [piss-shiver](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1044/what-causes-piss-shiver), whatever they may be. > [@CrimeThink](#): > > When I clean my belly button I feel a sensation at the tip of my penis. Have you tried pulling your dick out of your bippie beforehand? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-term-for-this-kind-of-effect/553586/10 "2010-09-13T23:06:04Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > When I worked in a neurobiology lab many years ago, I called it “crosstalk” but that’s a generic engineering term for when signals from one source get coupled into the signal path for something else. It is quite common, and occurs more frequently when nerves go into the same nerve bundle. For example, people with sore throats often feel itching in their ears because the nerves that go to the ears and the throat end up in the same nerve bundle. > > There may be a biological term for it, but the neurobiologist I worked for always understood what I meant when I called it crosstalk. Or, when you get kicked in the 'nads, nausea often results, because the nerves from testicular pain receptors pass through nerves for nausea in the stomach etc.