Piezo2 Deficiency - The Inability to Feel Gentle Touch and Proprioception

Sensory Perception and disability in that aspect is what I want to share with you today and you would be really surprise to know that just the way you use the power button and the phone switches off, some people would collapse immediately light goes out.

Sana, a 31 year old lady was asked touch her nose and a ball in front of her while looking at it, and she was able to do it properly but when she was asked to touch her nose and the ball without looking, she found it very difficult to even touch her nose not to talk of touching the ball. She isn't the only one who has issues with sensory perception because her sister Sawsen also experience the similar sensory issues where she falls over when she turns off the switch. She narrates that it is like she is being blindfolded and turned severally and asked to move in one direction and since her sense of touch is impaired, she collapses.

Without looking or opening their eyes, they didn't have any sensation as these people cannot tell when a person is touching them and for the case of the two ladies above, their nervous system, their brain and their muscles weren't damaged rather, they both have a genetic mutation that causes them not to be able to feel. They have difficulty of feeling even when they want to pick things from a back they are not looking into.

From the articles I read, I could conclude that there aren't much people who have this genetic deficiency of not having a sensation when they aren't seeing because as at 2019, there are less than 30 people who suffer from this condition. This condition is caused by a gene that codes the Piezo2 ion channel which facilitate electrical signals to and from the brain to our mechanosensation and propriosensation. Piezo1 ion channel is associated with blood pressure regulation.

With this condition, certain senses are implicated including proprioception which is the sense of joint and limb feeling, another is kinaesthesia which s thee sense of motion, next is sense of force where one is unable to match the force exerted on the body, and the loss of change in velocity which has to do with the inability to detect vibration. People who do not have the Piezo2 ion channel suffer from lack of proprioception, and the inability to feel gentle touch making it impossible to feel anything that isn't heavy pressure on the body.

Currently there aren't a lot of people suffering from this condition and it is visible that it can be difficult for them seeing that they do not have proprioception and touch feeling. Scientists are still getting to understand this condition as well as find treatment for it but then it is possible that the low number of people with the condition might be as a result of people not reporting cases of it, or maybe it is just rare but in all, if you notice a change in your body, the next line of action is to visit a doctor.

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^{Post Reference}

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^{https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpcell.00544.2022
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8794004/
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Proprioception
https://www.omim.org/entry/613629
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/ion-channel-14047658/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/ion-channel
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/11/22/20920762/proprioception-sixth-sense
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1602812
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4661126/
https://helix.northwestern.edu/article/proprioception-your-sixth-sense}

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^{Image Reference}

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^{Image 1 || Flickr || Disability Awareness Activity
Image 2 || Wikimedia Commons || Proprioception}