There’s plenty of signals coming from the nerve bundles in the area. Phantom pain seems to need larger sets of nerve bundles removed/unstimulated. Is s not fully understood, but that seems to be how it works. People who lose fingers often do get increased sensitivity on other fingers and they can also get phantom pain.
Again, I have to express doubt. I understand brain plasticity, and why some people can read Braille, while I cannot. (I haven’t put in the work.) Sensory receptors are specific to certain functions, though, and one type cannot assume the function of another if it’s not present. Nobody can read Braille on their lower back, because it lacks fine-touch receptors.
I did read a study which made a good point about perceived intensity of sensation not correlating with number of sensory receptors. I can understand why circumcision may not affect many men. However, I stand by my statement that you cannot perceive sensation from receptors that are gone. WRT the original comment, there are some men who do experience lowered or absent sexual sensation due to circumcision. Perhaps their brains are attuned to those receptors that are gone. Also, later in life sensory perception of all kinds naturally begins to fade, and the number of missing receptors become more evident.
I think the mechanism in question is more on the brain side. Where certain sets of nerves are processed, if some are missing that area of brain simply adjusts the input strength of others. I suspect adult amputation is different from amputation of a newborn since the brain elasticity is so different. But all we can do it make educated guesses anyway since we can’t do controlled experiments. Studies involving watching brain activity can only go so far to really reflect experience. So we can’t know. I’m just pointing out that the common sense approach you indicated isn’t matched by some clear data. So it’s not cut and dry. It could even be that men circumcised at birth experience more sexual pleasure.
There’s plenty of signals coming from the nerve bundles in the area. Phantom pain seems to need larger sets of nerve bundles removed/unstimulated. Is s not fully understood, but that seems to be how it works. People who lose fingers often do get increased sensitivity on other fingers and they can also get phantom pain.
Again, I have to express doubt. I understand brain plasticity, and why some people can read Braille, while I cannot. (I haven’t put in the work.) Sensory receptors are specific to certain functions, though, and one type cannot assume the function of another if it’s not present. Nobody can read Braille on their lower back, because it lacks fine-touch receptors.
I did read a study which made a good point about perceived intensity of sensation not correlating with number of sensory receptors. I can understand why circumcision may not affect many men. However, I stand by my statement that you cannot perceive sensation from receptors that are gone. WRT the original comment, there are some men who do experience lowered or absent sexual sensation due to circumcision. Perhaps their brains are attuned to those receptors that are gone. Also, later in life sensory perception of all kinds naturally begins to fade, and the number of missing receptors become more evident.
I think the mechanism in question is more on the brain side. Where certain sets of nerves are processed, if some are missing that area of brain simply adjusts the input strength of others. I suspect adult amputation is different from amputation of a newborn since the brain elasticity is so different. But all we can do it make educated guesses anyway since we can’t do controlled experiments. Studies involving watching brain activity can only go so far to really reflect experience. So we can’t know. I’m just pointing out that the common sense approach you indicated isn’t matched by some clear data. So it’s not cut and dry. It could even be that men circumcised at birth experience more sexual pleasure.