{"id":2237,"date":"2014-06-05T13:03:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T11:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=2237"},"modified":"2014-07-31T10:49:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-31T08:49:31","slug":"cold-bottom-reflex-previously-unknown-forgotten-micturation-reflex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/junq.info\/?p=2237","title":{"rendered":"The Cold Bottom Reflex \u2013 A Previously Unknown or a Forgotten Micturation Reflex?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peeing or, more delicately, urination or, medically and even more delicately, micturation, is, contrary to popular opinion, a rather complex behaviour. In human infants and animals it seems spontaneous. In humans and some domestic animals it can be brought under conscious or voluntary control. In humans this is called, somewhat ambivalently, \u2018potty training\u2019. In domestic animals it is called, rather confusingly, \u2018housebreaking\u2019 in American English or, slightly more logically, \u2018house-training\u2019 in British English. In many other animals, who use urine as scent or territory markers, it must also, at least partly, be under voluntary control. However, even if brought under voluntary control, it still sometimes happens that in healthy individuals some external stimuli may provoke the urge to urinate as if by reflex.<\/p>\n

One urban legend says that urination can be induced in a sleeping person by holding one of his hands in water. There is considerable disagreement about this putative phenomenon.[1]<\/p>\n

Other much reported provoking stimuli of micturation are (1) the sound of running water, for example in taps, fountains, and waterfalls, (2) hand-washing in cold water, and (3) being in a loo \/ toilet \/ bathroom \/ washroom \/ restroom, as if by a conditioned reflex.[2]<\/p>\n

He stared at a big bleary bald-headed sixty-year-old man in the mirror. He turned on the cold water at one of the bassins and cupped his hands and rubbed water over his face The water really made him want to urinate, and so he went over to the toilet, which was some streamlined, low-slung beige thing, and he urinated. Was this a bad sign, the urge he had always to urinate in the middle of the night?[3]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this literary passage it is unclear \u2013 apparently also for the novelist \u2013 whether the urge to urinate is caused by the washing of hands in cold water, by the splashing of cold water on the face, or by the sound of running water, or \u2013 prosaically \u2013 because of an age-effect on the bladder and its sphincters.<\/p>\n

There are probably at least two more local stimuli of the micturation reflex. The first stimulus is invasive and is used as an experimental and diagnostic tool. In the ice-water test (IWT) cooled water is<\/p>\n

injected through a catheter into the bladder.[4] The second stimulus is non-invasive and is used as a means to induce urination in women who have recently given birth and are experienceing difficulty or pain urinating. The author of a popular self-help book advises:<\/p>\n

You can encourage the urine to start flowing again by […] placing hot or cold packs on your perineum (whichever triggers your urge to urinate).[5]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, the author writes also:<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s good old-fashioned fear that\u2019s holding you back, you might want to try drinking plenty of liquids to dilute the acidity of your urine, straddling the toilet saddle-style when you urinate, urinating while you pour water across your perineum (you can use either a peri-bottle or a bowl), or \u2014 if you really get desperate \u2014 urinating when you\u2019re standing in the shower.[6]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This advice comes closest to the idea conveyed in a passage that originally triggered my curiosity. In 1964 the Dutch writer and painter Jan Cremer published his first novel which became a best-seller and a cause célèbre<\/em>. In this supposedly autobiographical picaresque Cremer described his childhood friendship with a young mother around 1950:<\/p>\n

If I happened to be in the street in the afternoon when Betty came home with the baby carriage, she\u2019d say to me, \u201cCome in and watch Bartje piss,\u201d and I\u2019d go in with her. She would change his diaper and sprinkle a little cold water on his ass, and he\u2019d react immediately by pissing until his little bladder was empty.[7]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently \u2018Betty\u2019 used this trick to ensure that her baby boy \u2018Bartje\u2019 would have an empty bladder when getting a dry and fresh diaper. This was before the days of disposable diapers and Bartje\u2019s diapers were most likely made of cotton. It was in his mother\u2019s interest that Bartje would have a dry diaper as long as possible. Ensuring that Bartje\u2019s bladder was empty when his diaper was getting changed was one way to do this.<\/p>\n

Maybe it is the same reflex that is responsible for the often observed peeing while undoing a used and wet diaper. In such cases, especially boys can cause hilarity when they spray with urine the unexpecting adult who undresses the diaper.<\/p>\n

Maybe the putative reflex was painted by Rembrandt. Ganymede\u2019s bottom region must have become relatively cold when being airlifted. An alternative explanation for the airborne micturation could be that Ganymede urinated because of \u2018real stress\u2019 incontinence: the distress or hightened negative stress that was caused by the situation in which he suddenly and unwillingly had found himself.<\/p>\n