Why do we get goosebumps? The whys of children

Children's questions often surprise us. And on many occasions, we do not even know what to answer. One of the questions that children often ask is this: why we get goosebumps. That is to say, because before certain stimuli like the change of temperature or a strong emotion, the hair bristles and we

Children's questions often surprise us. And on many occasions, we do not even know what to answer. One of the questions that children often ask is this: why we get goosebumps. That is to say, because before certain stimuli like the change of temperature or a strong emotion, the hair bristles and we feel that the skin also reacts.

Why do we get goosebumps? How to explain it to children

Many of the animals that have hair have this reaction, although we know it as "goose bumps" because it looks like the skin of chickens and chickens after being plucked.

In the case of animals, this occurs when they are afraid or cold; because when they are afraid they prick up their hair to look bigger in front of the enemy, while when they are cold, a layer of insulating air is created when the hair that isolates them is removed, at the same time that the blood vessels contract to avoid the loss of body heat.

The physiological reason is that the skin and the nervous system are intimately linked. About 8 million touch sensors reside on the skin, some more around the mouth and the erogenous zones, becoming the visible reflection of what happens inside and outside of your body.

In the case of humans, unlike animals, chicken skin reaction not only occurs with cold or fear, but also when something is pleasant or in cases of very stimulating sensations. This is an inheritance from our animal side, however, in our case, we have the added value of a more complex brain, which is really interpreting these sensations, sending a message to the body to secrete adrenaline, either by a positive effect as a caress or a nice memory, as if by a sensation of cold or fear. Adrenaline, which occurs in two glands located above the kidneys, causes the contraction of the muscles of the skin and keeps us alert to possible dangers. Likewise, it impels tiny muscles around each hair, to contract, bristling and hollowing out the pores that contain it, generating the appearance of goosebumps. It's funny how a neuroscientific study from the

California Institute of Technology, has revealed that the same caress could have contrary effects on a person, depending on our feelings and beliefs, even that the goosebumps reaction occurred before that the caress would come to the skin, just to foresee it in the mind .