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This article is about the senses of living organisms (vision, taste, etc. ). For other uses, see Sense (disambiguation).
Depictions of the five senses became a popular subject for seventeenth-century artists, especially among Dutch and Flemish Baroque painters. A typical example is Gérard de Lairesse's Allegory of the Five Senses (1668; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum), in which each of the figures in the main group allude to a sense: sight is the reclining boy with a convex mirror, hearing is the cupid-like boy with a triangle, smell is represented by the girl with flowers, taste by the woman with the fruit and touch by the woman holding the bird.
Depictions of the five senses became a popular subject for seventeenth-century artists, especially among Dutch and Flemish Baroque painters. "Dutch Masters" redirects here for the cigar see Dutch Masters (cigar. Flemish Baroque painting is the art produced in the Southern Netherlands between about 1585 when the Dutch Republic was split from the Habsburg Spain A typical example is Gérard de Lairesse's Allegory of the Five Senses (1668; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum), in which each of the figures in the main group allude to a sense: sight is the reclining boy with a convex mirror, hearing is the cupid-like boy with a triangle, smell is represented by the girl with flowers, taste by the woman with the fruit and touch by the woman holding the bird. Gerard de Lairesse ( Liège, 1640 or 1641 &ndash Amsterdam, 1711) also Gérard de Lairesse, was a Dutch Golden Age A curved mirror is a Mirror with a curved reflective surface which may be either convex (bulging outward or concave (bulging inward In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido) is the god of Erotic Love and Beauty. The triangle is an Idiophone type of Musical instrument in the percussion family

Senses are the physiological methods of perception. In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science), and philosophy of perception. Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system Cognitive psychology is a branch of Psychology that investigates internal mental processes such as problem solving memory and language Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior The philosophy of perception concerns how mental processes and Symbols depend on the world internal and external to the perceiver The nervous system has a specific sensory system, or organ, dedicated to each sense. The nervous system is a Network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself See also Sense A sensory system is a part of the Nervous system responsible for processing sensory information

Contents

Definition of sense

There is no firm agreement among neurologists as to the number of senses because of differing definitions of what constitutes a sense. One definition states that an exteroceptive sense is a faculty by which outside stimuli are perceived. [1] The traditional five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste: a classification attributed to Aristotle. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. [2] Humans also have at least six additional senses (a total of eleven including interoceptive senses) that include: nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance), proprioception & kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration), sense of time, thermoception (temperature differences), and in some a weak magnetoception (direction)[3]. Nociception (synonym nociperception is defined as "the neural processes of encoding and processing Noxious stimuli. Equilibrioception or sense of balance is one of the physiological Senses It helps prevent Humans and Animals from falling over when Proprioception (ˌproʊpriːəˈsɛpʃən PRO -pree-o-SEP-shun from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception is the Sense Proprioception (ˌproʊpriːəˈsɛpʃən PRO -pree-o-SEP-shun from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception is the Sense Although the sense of time is not associated with a specific sensory system the work of Psychologists and Neuroscientists indicates that our brains do have a system Thermoception or thermoreception is the Sense by which an Organism perceives Temperature. Magnetoception (or "magnetoreception" is the ability to detect changes in a Magnetic field to perceive direction or altitude and has even been postulated as a method

One commonly recognized catagorisation for human senses is as follows: chemoreception; photoreception; mechanoreception; and thermoception. A chemosensor, also known as chemoreceptor, is a Sensory receptor that transduces a chemical signal into an Action potential. A photoreceptor, or photoreceptor cell, is a specialized type of Neuron (nerve cell found in the Eye 's Retina that is capable of A mechanoreceptor is a Sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion Thermoception or thermoreception is the Sense by which an Organism perceives Temperature. Indeed, all human senses fit into one of these four categories.

Different senses also exist in other organisms, for example electroreception. Electroreception, sometimes written as electroception, is the biological ability to perceive Electrical impulses It is particularly common among aquatic creatures

A broadly acceptable definition of a sense would be "a system that consists of a group sensory cell types that responds to a specific physical phenomenon, and that corresponds to a particular group of regions within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted. Within Evolutionary biology, signalling theory refers to a body of theoretical work examining communication between individuals " Disputes about the number of senses arise typically regarding the classification of the various cell types and their mapping to regions of the brain. A mind map is a Diagram used to represent Words, Ideas tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea

Senses

Sight

Sight or vision is the ability of the brain and eye to detect electromagnetic waves within the visible range (light) interpreting the image as "sight. In Psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret information from Visible light reaching the Eyes The resulting Perception is also Light, or visible light, is Electromagnetic radiation of a Wavelength that is visible to the Human eye (about 400–700 " There is disagreement as to whether this constitutes one, two or three senses. Neuroanatomists generally regard it as two senses, given that different receptors are responsible for the perception of colour (the frequency of photons of light) and brightness (amplitude/intensity - number of photons of light). Some argue that stereopsis, the perception of depth, also constitutes a sense, but it is generally regarded as a cognitive (that is, post-sensory) function of brain to interpret sensory input and to derive new information. Stereopsis (from stereo meaning solidity and opsis meaning vision or Sight) is the process in Visual perception leading to the sensation The inability to see is called blindness. Blindness is the condition of lacking Visual perception due to Physiological or Neurological factors

Hearing

Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies Since sound is vibrations propagating through a medium such as air, the detection of these vibrations, that is the sense of the hearing, is a mechanical sense akin to a sense of touch, albeit a very specialized one. In humans, this perception is executed by tiny hair fibres in the inner ear which detect the motion of a membrane which vibrates in response to changes in the pressure exerted by atmospheric particles within a range of 20 to 22000 Hz, with substantial variation between individuals. The ear is the sense organ that detects Sounds The Vertebrate ear shows a common biology from Fish to Humans with variations Sound can also be detected as vibrations conducted through the body by tactition. Lower and higher frequencies than that can be heard are detected this way only. The inability to hear is called deafness.

Taste

Taste or gustation is one of the two main "chemical" senses. Taste (or more formally gustation) is a form of direct Chemoreception and is one of the traditional five Senses There are at least four types of tastes[1] that "buds" (receptors) on the tongue detect, and hence there are anatomists who argue that these constitute five or more different senses, given that each receptor conveys information to a slightly different region of the brain. The tongue is the large bundle of Skeletal muscles on the floor of the Mouth that manipulates Food for chewing and swallowing (deglutition The inability to taste is called ageusia. Ageusia (pronounced ay-GOO-see-uh is the loss of Taste functions of the Tongue, particularly the inability to detect sweetness sourness bitterness saltiness and

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[4]. is one of the five Basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human Tongue. The umami receptor detects the amino acid glutamate, a flavor commonly found in meat and in artificial flavourings such as monosodium glutamate. In Chemistry, an amino acid is a Molecule containing both Amine and Carboxyl Functional groups In Biochemistry, this

Note that taste is not the same as flavor; flavor includes the smell of a food as well as its taste. Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a Food or other substance, and is determined

Smell

Smell or olfaction is the other "chemical" sense. Olfaction (also known as olfactics or smell) refers to the Sense of smell. Unlike taste, there are hundreds of olfactory receptors, each binding to a particular molecular feature. Odor molecules possess a variety of features and thus excite specific receptors more or less strongly. This combination of excitatory signals from different receptors makes up what we perceive as the molecule's smell. In the brain, olfaction is processed by the olfactory system. The Olfactory helps and relates sense of smell. The olfactory system is the Sensory system used for Olfaction. Olfactory receptor neurons in the nose differ from most other neurons in that they die and regenerate on a regular basis. An olfactory receptor neuron also called an olfactory sensory neuron is the primary transduction cell in the Olfactory system. Anatomically a nose is a protuberance in Vertebrates that houses the Nostrils or nares which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the The inability to smell is called anosmia. Anosmia is the lack of Olfaction, or an absence of the ability to smell

Touch

Touch, also called tactition, mechanoreception or somatic sensation, is the sense of pressure perception, generally in the skin. The skin is the outer covering of living tissue of an animal (or plant There are a variety of nerve endings that respond to variations in pressure (e. A mechanoreceptor is a Sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion g. , firm, brushing, and sustained). The inability to feel anything or almost anything is called anesthesia. Anesthesia, or anaesthesia (see spelling differences; from Greek grc αν- an-, "without" and grc αἲσθησις Paresthesia is a sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long term physical effect. Paresthesia (pron /ˌpɛɹɪsˈθiʒə/ paraesthesia in British English, pron In Psychology, sensation is the first stage in the biochemical and neurologic events that begins with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a Paresthesia (pron /ˌpɛɹɪsˈθiʒə/ paraesthesia in British English, pron The term person is used in Common sense to mean an individual Human being. The skin is the outer covering of living tissue of an animal (or plant

Balance and acceleration

Balance, Equilibrioception, or vestibular sense, is the sense which allows an organism to sense body movement, direction, speed, and acceleration, and to attain and maintain postural equilibrium and balance. Equilibrioception or sense of balance is one of the physiological Senses It helps prevent Humans and Animals from falling over when The organ of equilibrioception is the vestibular labyrinthine system found in both of the inner ears. The inner Ear is the bony labyrinth, a system of passages comprising two main functional parts the organ of hearing or Cochlea Technically this organ is responsible for two senses, angular momentum and linear acceleration (which also senses gravity), but they are known together as equilibrioception. In Physics, the angular momentum of a particle about an origin is a vector quantity equal to the mass of the particle multiplied by the Cross product of the position Gravitation is a natural Phenomenon by which objects with Mass attract one another

The vestibular nerve conducts information from the three semicircular canals, corresponding to the three spatial planes, the utricle, and the saccule. The vestibular nerve is one of the two branches of the Vestibulocochlear nerve (the Cochlear nerve being the other The semicircular canals are three half-circular interconnected tubes located inside each Ear that are the equivalent of three Gyroscopes located in three orthogonal Introduction The saccule is a bed of sensory cells situated in the inner ear The ampulla, or base, portion of the three semicircular canals each contain a structure called a crista. Cristae (singular crista) are the internal compartments formed by the inner membrane of a Mitochondrion. These bend in response to angular momentum or spinning. The saccule and utricle, also called the "otolith organs", sense linear acceleration and thus gravity. An otolith, (οτο- oto-, ear + λιθος lithos, a stone also called statoconium or otoconium is a structure in the Saccule Otoliths are small crystals of calcium carbonate that provide the inertia needed to detect changes in acceleration or gravity. Calcium carbonate is a Chemical compound with the Chemical formula Ca[[Carbon C]] O 3

Temperature

Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin and including internal skin passages. Thermoception or thermoreception is the Sense by which an Organism perceives Temperature. The skin is the outer covering of living tissue of an animal (or plant The thermoceptors in the skin are quite different from the homeostatic thermoceptors in the brain (hypothalamus) which provide feedback on internal body temperature. Homeostasis (from Greek: ὅμος hómos, "equal" and ιστημι istēmi, "to stand" lit POAH is an acronym for preoptic anterior hypothalamus the part of the brain that senses core body temperature and regulates it to about 98

Kinesthetic sense

Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, provides the parietal cortex of the brain with information on the relative positions of the parts of the body. Proprioception (ˌproʊpriːəˈsɛpʃən PRO -pree-o-SEP-shun from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception is the Sense Neurologists test this sense by telling patients to close their eyes and touch the tip of a finger to their nose. 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 and touch are related in subtle ways, and their impairment results in surprising and deep deficits in perception and action. [5]

Pain

Nociception (physiological pain) signals near-damage or damage to tissue. Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm The three types of pain receptors are cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones) and visceral (body organs). It was believed that pain was simply the overloading of pressure receptors, but research in the first half of the 20th century indicated that pain is a distinct phenomenon that intertwines with all of the other senses, including touch. Pain was once considered an entirely subjective experience, but recent studies show that pain is registered in the anterior cingulate gyrus of the brain. The Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC is the frontal part of the Cingulate cortex, which resembles a "collar" form around the Corpus callosum, the fibrous

Other internal senses

An internal sense or interoception is "any sense that is normally stimulated from within the body. "[6] These involve numerous sensory receptors in internal organs, such as stretch receptors that are neurologically linked to the brain.

Non-human senses

Analogous to human senses

Other living organisms have receptors to sense the world around them, including many of the senses listed above for humans. However, the mechanisms and capabilities vary widely.

Smell

Among non-human species, dogs have a much keener sense of smell than humans, although the mechanism is similar. The dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated Subspecies of the gray wolf, a Mammal of the Canidae family of the order Insects have olfactory receptors on their antennae. Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described Antennae (singular antenna) are paired Appendages connected to the front-most segments of Arthropods In Crustaceans they are

Vision

Cats have the ability to see in the dark due to muscles surrounding their irises to contract and expand pupils as well as the tapetum lucidum, a reflective membrane that optimizes the image. WikipediaManual of Style (spelling, articles should conform to one overall spelling style of English typically the one most linked to the article topic (if it is geographic The tapetum lucidum ( Latin: "bright tapestry" plural tapeta lucida) is a layer of tissue in the Eye of many Vertebrate animals that 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. Common names: pit vipers pitvipers The Crotalinae, or crotalines are a subfamily of venomous vipers found Boa Kwon (born November 5, 1986) have contributed to her commercial success in South Korea and Japan and her popularity throughout Asia Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of The common vampire bat may also have an infrared sensor on its nose. The Common Vampire Bat ( Desmodus rotundus) is a species of Vampire bat. [7] Infrared senses are, however, just sight in a different light frequency range. It has been found that birds and some other animals are tetrachromats and have the ability to see in the ultraviolet down to 300 nanometers. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Tetrachromacy is the condition of possessing four independent channels for conveying Color information or possessing four different cones. Ultraviolet ( UV) light is Electromagnetic radiation with a Wavelength shorter than that of Visible light, but longer than X-rays Bees are also able to see in the ultraviolet. Bees are flying Insects closely related to Wasps and Ants Bees are a Monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea

Balance

Ctenophores have a balance receptor (a statocyst) that works very differently from the mammalian's semi-circular canals. The phylum Ctenophora (tɨˈnɒfərə commonly known as comb jellies, is a phylum that includes the Sea gooseberry ( Pleurobrachia pileus) and The statocyst is a balance organ present in some aquatic Invertebrates ( Cnidarians Ctenophores Bilaterians)

Not analogous to human senses

In addition, some animals have senses that humans do not, including the following:

The only order of mammals that is known to demonstrate electroception is the monotreme order. Monotremes (from the Greek monos 'single' + trema 'hole' referring to the Cloaca) are Mammals that lay eggs ( Prototheria) instead Among these mammals, the platypus[8] has the most acute sense of electroception. The Platypus ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi- aquatic Mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
Body modification enthusiasts have experimented with magnetic implants to attempt to replicate this sense,[9] however in general humans (and probably other mammals) can detect electric fields only indirectly by detecting the effect they have on hairs. Body modification (or body alteration) is the permanent or semi-permanent deliberate altering of the human body for non-medical reasons such as sexual enhancement 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). This is however not electroception as it is a post-sensory cognitive action.
Magnetotactic bacteria build miniature magnets inside themselves and use them to determine their orientation relative to the Earth's magnetic field. Magnetotactic bacteria (or MTB) are a class of Bacteria discovered in the 1960s that exhibit the peculiar ability to orient themselves along the magnetic field

See also

Research Centers

References

  1. ^ Senses
  2. ^ JewishEncyclopedia.com - SENSES, THE FIVE
  3. ^ Magnetic fields and the central nervous system, Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 111, Issue 11, Pages 1934 - 1935, A . Attention is the Cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things An auditory illusion is an Illusion of hearing, the aural equivalent of an optical illusion the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the stimulus This article is about visual perception See Optical Illusion (Album for information about the Time Requiem album Touch illusions are Illusions that exploit the Sense of touch. Taste (or more formally gustation) is a form of direct Chemoreception and is one of the traditional five Senses Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience. Intuition is apparent ability to acquire knowledge without a clear inference or the use of reason In Psychology, sensation is the first stage in the biochemical and neurologic events that begins with the impinging of a stimulus upon the receptor cells of a Multimodal integration is the study of how the different sensory modalities, such as sight sound and touch become integrated into a perceptual experience that is coherent The sensitivity or insensitivity of a Human, often considered with regard to a particular kind of stimulus, is the strength of the Feeling it Although the sense of time is not associated with a specific sensory system the work of Psychologists and Neuroscientists indicates that our brains do have a system The term sensorium (plural sensoria refers to the sum of an organism's Perception, the "seat of Sensation " where it experiences and interprets the Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek (syn meaning "with" The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI is a United States Non-profit medical Research institute based in Chevy Chase Maryland The stated objective of the Institute for Advanced Science and Engineering is "the explanation of experience in nature Voustianiouk
  4. ^ Press Releases - Nature Neuroscience
  5. ^ http://www.roblesdelatorre.com/gabriel/GR-IEEE-MM-2006.pdf Robles-De-La-Torre 2006
  6. ^ Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sense
  7. ^ www.pitt.edu/AFShome/s/l/slavic/public/html/courses/vampires/images/bats/vambat.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors.
  8. ^ Electroreception in the Platypus
  9. ^ Implant gives artist the sense of "magnetic vision". Retrieved on 2007-05-25. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors.
  10. ^ The Magnetic Sense of Animals

External links

Dictionary

sense

-noun

  1. One of the methods for a living being to gather data about the world; sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste.
  2. A general conscious awareness.
  3. Sound practical judgment, as in common sense
  4. The meaning, reason, or value of something.
  5. A natural appreciation or ability
  6. (pragmatics) The way that a referent is presented.
  7. (semantics) A single conventional use of a word; one of the entries for a word in a dictionary.

-verb

  1. To use biological senses: to either smell, watch, taste, hear or feel.
  2. To instinctively be aware.
  3. To comprehend.
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