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Senses are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, but most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science), and philosophy of perception. In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ...
Neuroscience is a field of study which deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology and pathology of the nervous system. ...
Cognitive psychology is the psychological science which studies cognition, the mental processes that are hypothesised to underlie behavior. ...
Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ...
The philosophy of perception concerns how mental processes and symbols depend on the world internal and external to the perceiver. ...
Definition of "sense"
There is no firm agreement amongst neurologists as to exactly how many senses there are. The disagreements stem from a lack of consensus as to what the definition of a sense should be. Although school children are still routinely taught that there are five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste; a classification first devised by Aristotle), it is generally agreed that there are at least nine different senses in humans, and a minimum of two more observed in other organisms. Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης Aristotelēs) (384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ...
A broadly acceptable definition of a sense would be "a system that consists of a sensory cell type (or group of cell types) that respond to a specific kind of physical energy, and that correspond to a defined region (or group of regions) within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted". Where disputes arise is with regard to the exact classification of the various cell types and their mapping to regions of the brain.
List of senses Using this definition several senses can be identified. This list begins with those five senses defined by Aristotle and probably most familiar to the reader.
Sight or vision describes the ability to detect electromagnetic energy within the visible range (light) by the eye and the brain to interpret the image as "sight". There is disagreement as to whether or not this constitutes one, two or even three distinct senses. Neuroanatomists generally regard it as two senses, given that different receptors are responsible for the perception of colour (the frequency of light) and brightness (the energy of light). Some argue that the perception of depth also constitutes a sense, but it is generally regarded that this is really a cognitive (that is, post-sensory) function derived from having stereoscopic vision (two eyes) and is not a sensory perception as such. Visual perception is one of the senses, consisting of the ability to detect light and interpret (see) it as the perception known as sight or naked eye vision. ...
Prism splitting light Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye, or in a more general sense, any electromagnetic radiation in the range from infrared to ultraviolet. ...
Diagram of a human eye. ...
In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the supervisory center of the nervous system. ...
Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception and results from tiny hair fibres in the inner ear detecting the motion of a membrane which vibrates in response to changes in the pressure exerted by atmospheric particles within (at best) a range of 20 to 20000 Hz. Sound can also be detected as vibrations conducted through the body by tactition. Lower and higher frequencies than can be heard are detected this way only. Hearing is one, the auditory, of the traditional five senses, and refers to the ability to detect sound. ...
A schematic representation of auditory signaling Sound is an alternation in pressure, particle displacement, or particle velocity propagated in an elastic material (Olson 1957) or series of mechanical compressions and rarefactions or longitudinal waves that successively propagate through medium that are at least a little compressible (solid, liquid or gas...
For an alternative meaning, see ear (botany). ...
Taste or gustation is one of the two main "chemical" senses. It is well-known that there are at least four types of taste "bud" (receptor) on the tongue and hence, as should now be expected, there are anatomists who argue that these in fact constitute four or more different senses, given that each receptor conveys information to a slightly different region of the brain. Taste is one of the most common and fundamental of the senses in life on Earth. ...
Alternative meaning: Tongue, Highland The tongue is the large bundle of muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. ...
The four well-known receptors detect sweet, salt, sour, and bitter, although the receptors for sweet and bitter have not been conclusively identified. A fifth receptor, for a sensation called "umami", was first theorised in 1908 and its existence confirmed in 2000 (see [1] (http://www.nature.com/neuro/press_release/nn0200.html)). The umami receptor detects the amino acid glutamate, a flavor commonly found in meat, and in artificial flavourings such as monosodium glutamate. Human taste sensory organs, called taste buds or gustatory calyculi, and concentrated on the upper surface of the tongue, appear to be receptive to relatively few chemical species as tastes. ...
In chemistry, an amino acid is any molecule that contains both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. ...
Smell or olfaction is the other "chemical" sense. Unlike taste, there are hundreds of olfactory receptors, each binding to a particular molecular feature, according to current theory. The combination of features of the odor molecule makes up what we perceive as the molecule's smell. In the brain, olfaction is processed by the olfactory system. Olfactory receptor neurons in the nose differ from most other neurons in that they die and regenerate on a regular basis. Olfaction, the sense of smell, is the detection of chemicals dissolved in air (or, by animals that breathe water, in water). ...
The olfactory system is the sensory system used for olfaction. ...
An olfactory receptor neuron, also called an olfactory sensory neuron, is the primary transduction cell for olfaction in the olfactory system. ...
Human nose Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration. ...
Note that in aquatic organisms there is essentially no difference between smell and taste.
The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (announced (http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/2004/index.html) 4 October 2004) was won by Richard Axel and Linda Buck for their work explaining olfaction, published first in a joint paper in 1991 that described the very large family of about one thousand genes for odorant receptors and how the receptors link to the brain. The Nobel Prizes (pronounced no-BELL or no-bell) are awarded annually to people who have done outstanding research, invented groundbreaking techniques or equipment, or made outstanding contributions to society. ...
List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine from 1901 to the present day. ...
October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Richard Axel, M.D. (born July 2, 1946, New York City) is an American scientist whose work on the olfactory system won him and Linda B. Buck, then a post-doctoral scientist in his research group, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004. ...
Linda B. Buck, Ph. ...
The remaining senses can be considered types of touch or physical feeling of the body (somatosensation). This article concerns physical and human touch. ...
A feeling can refer to: sensation related to one of several senses (tactition, thermoception, nociception, equilibrioception, proprioception), See also: touch, qualia emotion intuition In the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, feeling means you tend to put a higher priority on personal factors than impersonal factors. ...
Tactition is the sense of pressure perception, generally in the skin. Tactition is the sense of pressure perception. ...
Model of the layers of human skin In zootomy and dermatology, skin is an organ of the integumentary system; which is composed of a layer of tissues that protect underlying muscles and organs. ...
Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold), also by the skin and including internal skin passages. It is also the first of the group of senses not identified explicitly by Aristotle. Again there is some disagreement about how many senses this actually represents--the thermoceptors in the skin are quite different from the homeostatic thermoceptors which provide feedback on internal body temperature. How warm or cold something feels does not only depend on temperature, but also on specific heat capacity and heat conduction; e.g., warm metal feels warmer than warm wood, and cold metal feels colder than cold wood, because metal has a higher thermal conductivity than wood. Wind feels cold because of the heat withdrawn for evaporation of sweat or other moisture, and because an isolating layer of warm air around the body blows away; however, in the case of hot air, wind makes it feel hotter, for a similar reason as the latter. Thermoception or thermoreception is the sense by which an organism perceives temperature. ...
Model of the layers of human skin In zootomy and dermatology, skin is an organ of the integumentary system; which is composed of a layer of tissues that protect underlying muscles and organs. ...
Homeostasis or homoeostasis is the property of an open system, especially living organisms, to regulate its internal environment so as to maintain a stable condition, by means of multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustments controlled by interrelated regulation mechanisms. ...
Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ...
The specific heat capacity (symbol c or s, also called specific heat) of a substance is defined as heat capacity per unit mass. ...
Heat flow along perfectly insulated wire Conduction is the transfer of heat or electric current from one substance to another by direct contact. ...
In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and it is sometimes said that it is similar to a cation in a cloud of electrons. ...
This article describes the wood that comprises trees and boards. ...
Wind is the quasi-horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by a horizontal pressure gradient force. ...
Evaporation is the process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (or solid state if the substance sublimes) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state. ...
Sweating (also called perspiration or sometimes transpiration) is the loss of a watery fluid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and urea in solution, that is secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. ...
Nociception is the perception of pain. It can be classified as from one to three senses, depending on the classification method. The three types of pain receptors are cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones) and visceral (body organs). Pain is both a sensory and emotional experience, generally associated tissue damage, or inflammation. ...
Equilibrioception is the perception of balance and is related to cavities containing fluid in the inner ear. There is some disagreement as to whether or not this also includes the sense of "direction" or orientation. However, as with depth perception earlier, it is generally regarded that "direction" is a post-sensory cognitive awareness. Equilibrioception or sense of balance is one of the physiological senses. ...
Proprioception is the perception of body awareness and is a sense that people rely on enormously, yet are frequently not aware of. More easily demonstrated than explained, proprioception is the "unconscious" awareness of where the various regions of the body are located at any one time. (This can be demonstrated by anyone closing their eyes and waving their hand around. Assuming proper proprioceptive function, at no time will the person lose awareness of where the hand actually is, even though it is not being detected by any of the other senses). Proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning ones own) or muscle memory is the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body. ...
Based on this outline and depending on the chosen method of classification, somewhere between 9 and 21 human senses have been identified. Additionally, there are some other candidate physiological experiences which may or may not fall within the above classification (for example the sensory awareness of hunger and thirst).
Non-human senses All animals have receptors to sense the world around them, including many of the senses listed above for humans. However, the mechanisms and capabilities vary widely. Dogs have a much keener sense of smell than humans, although the mechanism is similar. Moths have olfactory receptors on their antennae and sound receptors on their wings. Ctenophores have a balance receptor (a statocyst) that works very differently from the mammalian semi-circular canals. In addition, some animals have senses that humans do not, including the following: Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog is a canine carnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for thousands of years. ...
Lepidopteran on a flower. ...
Antennae (singular antenna), are the paired appendages connecting to the first (and in crustaceans also to the second) segment of the head of the members of all subphyla of the arthropods except Chelicerata. ...
Classes Tentaculata Nuda Ctenophores are jellyfish-like animals commonly called comb jellies, sea gooseberries, sea walnuts, or Venus girdles. ...
The statocyst is a balance organ present in some aquatic invertebrates (Cnidarians, Ctenophores, Bilaterians). ...
Electroception (or "electroreception"), the most significant of the non-human senses, is the ability to detect electric fields. Several species of fish, sharks and rays have evolved the capacity to sense changes in electric fields in their immediate vicinity. Some fish passively sense changing nearby electric fields, some generate their own weak, electric fields and sense the pattern of field potentials over their body surface, and some use these generating and sensing capacities for social communication. The mechanisms by which electroceptive fishes construct a spatial representation from very small differences in field potentials involve comparisons of spike latencies from different parts of the fish's body. Electroreception, sometimes written as electroception, is the biological ability to receive and make use of electrical impulses. ...
In physics, an electric field or E-field is an effect produced by an electric charge that exerts a force on charged objects in its vicinity. ...
Orders see article text below Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha) of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan with between 5 and 7 gill slits along the sides (most often) or side of the head (the first modified slit is behind the eye and called a...
The only order of mammals which is known to demonstrate electroception is the monotreme order. Among these mammmals, the platypus (see [2] (http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/bionb420.07/anelson/platypus.html)) has the most acute sense of electroception. Families Kollikodontidae (extinct) Ornithorhynchidae - Platypus Tachyglossidae - Echidnas Steropodontidae (extinct) Monotremes are mammals that are best known for laying eggs, instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials and placental mammals (Eutheria). ...
This article is about the monotreme mammal. ...
Humans (and probably other mammals) can detect electric fields indirectly by detecting the effect they have on hairs. An electrically charged balloon, for instance, will exert a force on human arm hairs, which can be felt through tactition and identified as coming from a static charge (and not from wind or the like).
Magnetoception (or "magnetoreception") is the ability to detect fluctuations in magnetic fields and is most commonly observed in birds, though it has also been observed in insects such as bees. Although there is no dispute that this sense exists in many avians (it is essential to the navigational abilities of migratory birds) it is not a well understood phenomenon (see [3] (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/magsense/ms.html)). In physics, a magnetic field is an entity produced by moving electric charges (electric currents) that exerts a force on other moving charges. ...
Orders Many - see section below. ...
Families Andrenidae Anthophoridae Apidae Colletidae Ctenoplectridae Halictidae Heterogynaidae Megachilidae Melittidae Oxaeidae Sphecidae Stenotritidae bee or bees, see bee (disambiguation). ...
For other meanings of bird, see bird (disambiguation). ...
Magnetotactic bacteria build miniature magnets inside themselves and use them to determine their orientation relative to the Earth's magnetic field.
Echolocation is the ability to determine orientation to other objects through interpretation of reflected sound (like sonar). Bats and dolphins are noted for this ability, though some other mammals and birds do as well. It is most often used to navigate through poor lighting conditions or to identify and track prey. There is presently an uncertainty as to whether this is simply an extremely developed post-sensory interpretation of auditory perceptions, or actually constitutes a separate sense. Resolution of the issue will require brain scans of animals while they actually perform echolocation, a task which has proved difficult in practice. Animal echolocation is the ability of some animals to locate objects by emitting sound waves and listening for the echo. ...
The F70 type frigates (here, La Motte-Picquet) are fitted with VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) type DUBV43 or DUBV43C tugged sonars Sonar (sound navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation under water to navigate or to detect other watercraft. ...
Families Pteropodidae Emballonuridae Rhinopomatidae Craseonycteridae Rhinolophidae Nycteridae Megadermatidae Vespertilionidae Molossidae Antrozoidae Natalidae Myzopodidae Thyropteridae Furipteridae Noctilionidae Mystacinidae Mormoopidae Phyllostomidae Bats are flying mammals in the order Chiroptera with forelimbs developed as wings. ...
Genera See article below. ...
The lateral line is a pressure-sensing system of hairs found in fish and some aquatic amphibians. It is used primary for navigation, hunting, and schooling. In fish, the lateral line is a sense organ used to detect movement in the surrounding water. ...
For other uses, see Amphibian (disambiguation). ...
Pit vipers and some boas have organs that allow them to detect infrared light, such that these snakes are able to sense the body heat of their prey. This sense is in addition to and distinct from normal vision. Genera Many, see text *May be treated as a separate family, Crotalidae Pit Vipers (sometimes called crotalines) are mostly New World vipers found in North, Central and South America; a few species are recorded from isolated areas of Southeast Asia, the Caspian region of Europe, China and Japan. ...
BoA (born November 5, 1986 in Guri, Gyeonggi province) is a Korean pop singer. ...
Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than visible light, but shorter than microwave radiation. ...
See also An auditory illusion is an illusion of hearing (sense), the sound equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus, or impossible sounds. ...
An optical illusion is any illusion that deceives the human visual system into perceiving something that is not present or incorrectly perceiving what is present. ...
Touch illusions are illusions that exploit the sense of touch. ...
Empiricism is generally regarded as being at the heart of the modern scientific method, that our theories should be based on our observations of the world rather than on intuition or faith; that is, empirical research and a posteriori inductive reasoning rather than purely deductive logic. ...
In psychology, sensation is the first stage in the chain of biochemical and neurologic events that begins with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ, which then leads to perception, the mental state that is reflected in statements like I see a uniformly blue...
The sensitivity of a human, often considered with regard to a particular kind of stimulus, is the strength of the feeling it results in, in comparison with the strength of the stimulus. ...
(See also sense) A sensory system is a part of the nervous system that consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and those parts of the brain responsible for processing the information. ...
Sensorium, a medical term: (plural sensoria) sensory functions: all the sensory functions in the body, considered as a single unit brain area that responds to stimuli: the sensory components of the brain and nervous system that deal with the receiving and interpreting of external stimuli [Mid-17th century. ...
External links - The physiological and psychological underpinnings of senses (http://samvak.tripod.com/sense.html)
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