Post by @CannonFodder@lemmy.world

2026-04-13 22:29 UTC

The brain is weird and whacky the way it works. It has a sort of auto-gain. The less nerve stimulus over time leads to a higher sensitivity of remaining nerves. Often when people lose a limb, they still feel pain in it - the lack of nerve signals causes the remaining nerve endings to be amplified so much that despite not even having pain receptors, the noise signals are perceived as pain. So a human growing up with a cut forskin simply adapts and the brain perceives more sensitivity from the other nerves to produce the same levels of sensation.

Replies (2)

@wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2026-04-14 20:52

> So a human growing up with a cut foreskin simply adapts and the brain perceives more sensitivity from the other nerves to produce the same levels of sensation. That is just false. You sound like someone who isn't circumcised. Without the foreskin intact, the glans is subject to friction throughout the day as it's in contact with the inside of one's clothes. This reduces sensitivity over time and builds thicker, drier, and rougher layers of skin. Whereas the glans of an uncircumcised penis is basically a mucus membrane, on a circumcised penis it's more like the skin of a knuckle, but thicker.

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@SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 2026-04-14 00:13

That, uhh, sounds nice and all, but I don't believe it. This doesn't even make sense on the face of it: Why does removing one body part lead to phantom pain signals, but removing another body part lead to improved sensation? Do people who lose fingers develop better sensation in their remaining fingers to compensate? Wouldn't it stand to reason then that some men would get phantom foreskin pain?

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