Goosebumps and Arousal Nonconcordance
Arousal doesn't have to include sex
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Q: A few days ago I was waking up in the morning and my dog, when asking for affection, accidentally touched my rib. Without feeling symptoms of arousal or anything, I noticed that in one leg, a sensation of goosebumps had happened. This sensation usually happens in several scenarios: arousal, when I walk, when I scratch, when I am in an anxiety crisis and so on. Is this feeling in the legs an arousal? And if so, could it be a case of arousal non-concordance, caused by the accidental touch of my rib?
A: Why yes indeed it is an arousal! And technically it’s “arousal nonconcordance,” insofar as you experienced generic arousal in the absence of any subjective experience.
For a quick intro to arousal nonconcordance, here’s my actual TED talk about it:
Ultra-quick summary, as a reminder: Our bodies respond automatically to certain stimuli (like heights or food) and they can learn to respond automatically to other stimuli that become linked with those stimuli—like an open elevator door that makes your brain go, “uh-oh… heights!” or, like Pavlov’s dogs, a bell that is rung at every mealtime, so your brain goes, “Ooh! Food!” But that response doesn’t mean you want or like either the external stimulus or the internal experience of the response caused by the stimulus. Does that make sense? I mean, watch the TED talk.
Your question brings up an opportunity to clarify something sort of nerdy that I think folks will enjoy learning:
One of the things I discovered after the publication of the first version of Come As You Are is that when non-medical, non-academic people use the word “arousal,” they generally mean “genital response.” But researchers and physicians and people like that generally mean “activation of the relevant pathways in the central and/or peripheral nervous system.” You can think of it as a kind of “waking up,” like being “roused” out of sleep. A stimulus comes in, and the nervous system reacts to it, sending signals to your brain to let you know it happened, and activating some automatic physiological changes.
Other generic “arousal” (not sexual arousal, but “waking up” of your nervous system) include:
Changes in heart rate (especially heart rate variability)
Changes in respiration rate
Changes in blood flow
Pupil dilation
Reflex of the Achilles tendon
Sweating, for example on the palms of hands
Changes in digestion
Changes in hormones
Changes in muscle tension
Piloerection—aka, goosebumps!
And let’s just pause for a moment to give thanks to the research participants who allowed science to measure them in this odd kind of experience: imagine you’re sitting in a small, dark room with a device strapped to your genitals and your ankle strapped to the chair while you watch porn, and every now and then a little hammer taps on the back of your ankle. What in the world did those study participants think was happening?
And what other emotions might generate all these types of arousal? All of them!
Stress, fear, anger
Love, jealousy, grief
Play, excitement, curiosity
And yes, sex!
You name it!
Arousal nonconcordance studies are done not just on sexual arousal, but on all emotions! Most of our arousal responses don’t tell you which emotion a person might be experiencing, only that their body is responding in some way, to some kind of stimulus. One of my favorite citations in CAYA is an entire special issue of an academic journal devoted to concordance/nonconcordance in all emotion research!
To conclude:
Technically the “arousal” in the term “arousal nonconcordance” just means activation of the relevant pathways, and “nonconcordance” just means “without pleasure/desire/subjective awareness/etc,” depending which study it is and who you ask. So YES 100% your experience was arousal nonconcordance, because it was activation of sensory pathways, in the absence of any particular desire or interest.
Nonconcordance can happen with every kind of activation, every experience of emotion we experience. Goosebumps, you as point out, are a generic “arousal” response—not sexual arousal, just general activation of the nervous system. (Here’s a fun study on piloerection in response to musical “chills.”)
I hope that was helpful!
Questions or comments? Please email my very tiny team at unrulywellness@gmail.com
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