Laurenz Casser - Hot to the Touch and Cold to the Bone

Laurenz Casser (University of Sheffield)

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

Lunch Time Talk:  Laurenz Casser

Tuesday, March 24th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title:  Hot to the Touch and Cold to the Bone

Abstract:

In 1896, the Swedish physiologist Torsten Thunberg reported a curious discovery: when he touched a grid of alternating warm and cold brass pipes, the sensations of warmth and cold on his hand somehow ‘fused together’ into a ‘special sensation of heat’ — a sensation that many experimental subjects since then have described as painful. Since the 1990s, this so-called ‘thermal grill illusion’ (TGI) has become the conventional method of investigating ‘illusory pain’, and is said to hold important insights for our understanding of the bodily senses and clinical pain pathologies. However, what exactly these insights are meant to be remains largely unclear: indeed, after more than a century of scientific interest in Thunberg’s discovery, the sensory fusion he described is about as puzzling as ever. In this talk, I aim to articulate why the thermal grill illusion is a puzzle worth caring about, why it has been so difficult to solve, and what, if anything, we can learn from putting our hand on a grill.

This talk will be available online:

Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/99040150880

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg