What Is the Scientific Name for Funny Bone
Why does it hurt so much when you lot hit your funny bone?
Even the slightest bump of the funny bone tin ship pain rippling up and down the arm and a string of bawdy expletives rippling off the tongue. So why does hit this little region of the elbow cause so much discomfort?
The reply is pretty uncomplicated: It's a nerve, non a os, that is being hit.
To understand the source of this discomfort, allow's review a few key points of human beefcake. To brainstorm, the funny bone is scientifically known as the ulnar nerve, which is the primary nervus in the arm. Information technology travels from the spine through the neck, before snaking downwardly the upper arm following a groove in the humerus, the bone that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. Past the elbow, the nerve travels by the ulna (the bone on the pinky side of the lower arm) and the radius (the bone on the thumb side of the lower arm) to the wrist. The ulnar nerve is responsible for transmitting information from some of the fingertips to the encephalon and back again. In item, it allows a person to register sensations in their pinky and ring fingers, likewise every bit to control some movement in the mitt.
For near of the nervus's journey, information technology is buffered by bone, musculus and fat. As it weaves past the elbow, the nerve runs through a minor channel called the cubital tunnel. As it traverses this space, it runs past a bony claw at the elbow where the radius and ulna meet the humerus.
Related: Why do we bend our arms when nosotros run?
So why is this region so sensitive?
"When the nervus runs through a bony tunnel at your elbow, it is exposed," said Dr. Dominic King, a sports medicine doc at Cleveland Clinic'due south Orthopaedic & Rheumatologic Institute. "When you hit the nerve confronting something hard, you compress it between the os in your elbow and the difficult surface that you hit."
When information technology's pushed against the bony ridge, the ulnar nerve experiences so-called ulnar nerve entrapment, or the rapid onset of sharp, electric shock-similar hurting that runs downward the arm and into the hand, and an odd numbness downward the limb.
"Nerves are the way we feel annihilation in the body," Rex told Live Science. "This is one large nerve that is really close to the skin, and you are feeling consummate nervus pain."
Hit the funny bone rarely causes whatsoever damage. While the hurting typically subsides afterward a few minutes, information technology is enough to make a person contemplate wearing elbow guards at all times.
Hitting a nerve
And so, if it'due south a nerve, why is information technology called the funny bone? The nearly reasonable explanation lies in the arm'south anatomy. Remember: The large bone that extends from the shoulder to the elbow is chosen the humerus. Get information technology? Humorous. Funny. If it'south a joke, information technology is a bad one.
The second explanation lacks humor. Information technology is based on the "funny" sensation a person experiences when the nerve is bumped, suggesting it was described by a person with a pretty high hurting tolerance.
Other mammals too accept a similar configuration, but they rarely experience the same problem. These animals are protected by more muscle mass around the sensitive nervus that builds upwards effectually the different means animals motion. The padding adds a level of protection against this non-so-funny experience.
Originally published on Live Science.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/why-bumping-funny-bone-hurts.html
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