In 1995 , a television system broadcast in Japan reported that a man adjudicate to tire out a wire hanger around his headland while he was analyze ( as you do ) and found that his fountainhead involuntarily rotated . It does n’t sound real , does it ? Or maybe it was a one - off occasion ? But there have now been a few match - review papers suggesting that this phenomenon be and might in reality affect the absolute majority of people .
It is known as the " hanger reflex " ( HR ) and pass when the pressure of a hanger mounted on the head causes unvoluntary motion . In 2015 , astudydelved into the HR even further , taking 120 goodish Japanese adult , placing a telegram clothes hanger on their top dog , and recording the results .
If you want to know the specific , the longer side of the hanger was bind over the participant ’s frontotemporal neighborhood of the head , and 95.8 percentage of the discipline mat up a drumhead rotation sensation , while only five ( 4.2 percent ) were non - responder . In the study , 85.4 pct observed a rotation in the direction that coincide with the side compressed by the hanger . There were no differences between the genders .
In 2014 , scientistsinvestigatedthe phenomenon by create a head gyration interface using the HR . This basically think of they created a " hat " that could go for pressure at various points . Using it , they discovered the " sweetened spots " that induce the HR : the prior and later temporal regions . They then used actuators ( machine mover ) connected to a personal computer to urge the head from four different detail in a very hand - made - looking lid , standardised to what Louis Tully wore inGhostbusters .
The best program that the scientist found for the gimmick was navigation . The user can input their destination into an app and take the air around freely , and when they are require to turn the 60 minutes port would gently put force per unit area on their head to deform their fount in the right direction . This mind revolution is the instinctive motion proceed a twist and is , therefore , a more intuitive walk navigation equipment than some earlier model ( yes there were a few iteration of this ) .
scientist have alsoresearchedother applications of the HR machine , include as a treatment for cervical dystonia ( CD ) . CD is when patients have an unvoluntary cervix contraction that can make the head to twist or grow to one side . There are a wide form of treatments for this , include spinal electric cord and electric stimulation , but some of these treatments can be incursive and dearly-won . The equipment was applied to the CD patient role for 30 minutes a day for three months and , at long last , it improved atypical rotation in patients . All the subject participants expressed the desire to continue using the machine .
Anotherpaperdescribed a woman who had her head turned to the right field for 5 years . When she wear the hour twist on her head , she could turn her head easily to the left . Three months later , her head movement problems had almost entirely resolved even without wearing the twist , and she saw no reoccurrence after nine months .
So , this uncanny reflex could literally and figuratively be ferment point towards non - trespassing intervention for neurological and dystonia disorders .
