Everything about Goose Pimples totally explained
Goose bumps, also called
goose pimples,
goose flesh,
chill bumps,
chicken skin,
people bumps, or the medical term
cutis anserina, are the bumps on a person's
skin at the base of body
hairs which involuntarily develop when a person is cold or experiences strong emotions such as
fear or awe. The
reflex of producing goose bumps is known as
horripilation,
piloerection, or the
pilomotor reflex. It occurs not only in humans but also in many other
mammals; a prominent example are
porcupines which raise their quills when threatened.
Goose bumps are created when tiny
muscles at the base of each
hair, known as
arrectores pilorum, contract and pull the hair erect. The reflex is started by the
sympathetic nervous system, which is in general responsible for many
fight-or-flight responses.
As a response to cold: in animals covered with
fur or hair, the erect hairs trap air to create a layer of
insulation. Goose bumps can also be a response to anger or fear: the erect hairs make the animal appear larger, in order to intimidate enemies. This can be observed in the intimidation displays of
chimpanzees, in stressed
mice and rats, and in frightened
cats. In humans, it can even extend to piloerection as a reaction to hearing nails scratch on a chalkboard or listening to awe-inspiring music.
Piloerection as a response to cold or fear is
vestigial in humans; as humans retain only very little body hair, the reflex (in humans) now provides no known benefit.
In humans, goose bumps are strongest on the forearms, but also occur on the legs, back, and other areas of the skin that have hair. In some people, they even occur in the face or on the head.
Piloerection is also a (rare)
symptom of some diseases, such as temporal lobe
epilepsy, some
brain tumors, and
autonomic hyperreflexia. Goose bumps can also be caused by
heroin withdrawal. A skin condition that mimics goose bumps in appearance is
keratosis pilaris.
Goose bumps can occur only in mammals, since other animals don't have hair. The term "goose bumps" is therefore misleading: the bumps on the skin of a plucked
goose technically don't qualify as piloerection even though this is where the term comes from. Birds do however have a similar reflex of raising their feathers in order to keep warm.
The
Latin horrere is the root of words such as "horrific" or "horror"; it means "to bristle", and then "be horrified" because of the accompanying hair reaction.
In
German this is called
Gänsehaut, for example "goose skin".
It is named after a supposed resemblance to the appearance of the skin of a bird whose feathers have been plucked out.
In other languages, the "goose" may be replaced by other kinds of poultry. For instance, "
hen" is used in
French (
la chair de poule), "
Chicken" is used in
Dutch (
kippenvel),
Spanish (
la piel de gallina),
Chinese (雞皮疙瘩) and
Afrikaans (
hoendervleis).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Goose Pimples'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://goose_bumps.totallyexplained.com">Goose bumps Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
