| Flash
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| 66246. Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:35 pm |
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A new member called JackAvalon sent me a PM asking this:
| Quote: | I've just joined the site here, and I thought I'd take the chance to ask somthing.
During the C - Series, it was said that humans have between 9 and 21 senses, the normal 5 plus 4 that were mentioned on the show, and are pretty find-able on the net, however, I was wondering what the other possible 12 senses were? |
We might as well share the answer amongst the community at large. This was the note we had in the script:
| Quote: | Aristotle proposed five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Modern physiologists subdivide the "touch" category into "tacticion", the sense of pressure perception, which is really what Aristotle was talking about, but also "thermoception", the sense of heat, "nociception", the perception of pain, and "equilibrioception", the perception of balance. Some add "proprioception", the perception of body awareness (eg if you close your eyes and move your hand about you continue to know where it is even though it isn't being perceived by any of the traditional senses). There are other candidates, eg the senses of hunger and thirst, and direction, so that the number suggested varies between 9 and 21.
There are also senses which some animals have but we don't: "electroception" detects electric fields, "magnetoception" detects magnetic fields and is used in avian navigation systems, "echolocation", the "lateral line" used by fish to sense pressure, and infra-red vision. |
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| Celebaelin
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| 66251. Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:29 am |
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It probably depends on whether you stipulate that you must be aware of the detection for it to be a sense. Hunger is a combination of knowing your stomach is empty and blood glucose detection - is that two senses, three senses or only one sense?
I'm sure we've all felt static electricity making our hairs stand on end so we can detect static electricity that way but can we really distinguish it from something physical touching the same hairs? If not is that the sense of 'trichoorienception' or are we saying that the ability to distinguish between a breeze and static electricity makes that into two senses mediated through a combination of receptors keying on different physical properties? If having a separate receptor is what distinguishes a sense then we have five senses that comprise taste (salt, sour, bitter, sweet and umami) and the sense of smell could be subdivided into many thousands of senses depending on the particular transmembrane receptor protein of the cell in question.
We also know that humans are sensitive to day length, mediated through melatonin which is a pineal gland hormone, does this count as a sense? We respond to it but are we aware of it? Hibernation genes exist in humans does this imply that this is another related sense, albeit a dormant one?
| Quote: | | While birds are migrating in spring, animals emerge from hibernation. Animals stay inactive for shorter periods toward the end of hibernation season, and they come outside to assess the air temperature. They then decide whether to reenter torpor or terminate hibernation—think of Groundhog Day. Scientists think that the precise time hibernating animals finally emerge depends on both the outside temperature and the length of daylight, which normally increase in spring. These environmental signals are integrated in the brain, probably by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which regulates the amount of melatonin released from the pineal gland. |
http://www.nature.com/neuro/press_release/nn0200.html
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/O/Olfaction.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/hibernation.html
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/clocks/spring/hibernation.html |
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| grizzly
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| 66278. Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:01 am |
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I believe some birds can also see in the UV spectrum. It has also been proposed that each colour is a different sense in its own right (after all each colour requires a different type of receptor in the eye).
There was a lengthy article in NS last year on the subject. |
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| eggshaped
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| 66290. Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:46 am |
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| Yes, the article was on 29 January 2005 (issue 2484), but is subscription-only online. |
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| grizzly
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| 66309. Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:08 pm |
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| yep, I copy and pasted a couple but as has been pointed out to me this is probably contrary to copywrite. |
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| JackAvalon
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| 66547. Fri Apr 21, 2006 3:43 pm |
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Thanks for the responce!
Some really quite interesting stuff! |
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| Twopints
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| 99466. Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:49 am |
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How about itching, it's similar to the sense of touch but it's not necassarily pressure/temperature/pain, could that be classed as a seperate sense?
How about nasal irritation sense, as a reaction to pollen, or pepper or a bit of fluff causing the involuntary sneeze reflex. |
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| grizzly
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| 99509. Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:16 am |
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Itching?
Have you been watching city hospital yesterday? |
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| Twopints
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| 99552. Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:33 am |
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City hospital, no, why?
BTW, sorry about re-opening an old thread. I'd been reading the new thread on this subject in the "quite interestings" forum and clicked on the link to this thread and replied to this one, not realising I was responding to a thread which had been concluded months ago. |
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| jlassan
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| 619214. Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:24 am |
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| I am interested in doing a report on all the sences but due to my dislexia i found it incredibly dificult to read the larg block of text that this post has, could someone plees take the time to email me the full list of sences including animal ones, my email address is jameslassan@googlemail.com thanks |
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| imaginer
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| 636459. Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:12 am |
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Seeing detects electromangetic radiation.
The ears detect sound which is transmitted as pressure waves,,,,, then are sound and touch one in the same... because touch is pressure?
It does feel like a very grey area.... and perhaps experts... & us mindless nuts, could agree to disagree and to have no real definitive answer..... just a best guess. |
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| bobwilson
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| 636461. Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:19 am |
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| Does spurious post detection count as a sense? |
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| jlassan
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| 636471. Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:05 am |
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| what about the ability to sense when you are going up or down??? |
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| Alfred E Neuman
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| 636483. Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:12 am |
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| imaginer wrote: | Seeing detects electromangetic radiation.
The ears detect sound which is transmitted as pressure waves,,,,, then are sound and touch one in the same... because touch is pressure?
It does feel like a very grey area.... and perhaps experts... & us mindless nuts, could agree to disagree and to have no real definitive answer..... just a best guess. |
I think you need to clean the biscuit crumbs out of your . and , keys.
_________________
Wot? Me worry? |
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| Celebaelin
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| 636568. Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:07 pm |
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| jlassan wrote: | | what about the ability to sense when you are going up or down??? |
That's inertial sense and is related to the sense of balance in that it's the linear version of angular acceleration, ie it uses the same sensory organ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semicircular_canal |
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