Blog 10

Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide

data for perception (udel 1). The nervous system ties in
correlation with this as each sense has a sensory system or organ
dedicated to it. We have 5 basic sights in which everyone knows
which are sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. A definition is
hard to come by but here is a common and broadly acceptable
definition of sense. A system that consists of a group of 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 (udel 1).
Here is a brief definition of the 5 main and broad senses everyone
knows about.
Sight is the capability of the eyes to focus and detect images of
visible light on photoreceptors in the retina of each eye that
generates electrical nerve impulses for varying colors, hues, and
brightness.
Hearing is the sense of sound perception. Hearing is all about
vibration. Mechanoreceptors turn motion into electrical nerve
pulses, which are located in the inner ear.
Taste refers to the capability to detect the taste of substances
such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc. The sense of
taste is often confused with the sense of flavor, which is a
combination of taste and smell perception.
Smell has 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.
Touch is a perception resulting from activations of neural
receptors, generally in the skin including hair follicles, but also in
the tongue, throat, and mucosa.
Along with the basic senses, there are other senses that have
been disputed but are not agreed on such as balance,

temperature, kinesthetic sense, and pain. These are not

universally accepted and therefore are not in the traditional
senses.
A recent scientific study suggests that we have another sense.
One that suggests that we can detect magnetic fields and were
just not aware we have it. Test have been shown that mankind
may have the same innate sense of Earths magnetic field that
has long been proved to exist in animals. By putting a protein
from the human retina into fruit flies, researchers noticed that the
insect modified its flight path just as if its eye had not been
altered. Birds navigate by relying on geomagnetically sensitive
biochemical reactions in their eyes. Tests have shown that the
special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein
cryptochrome (dailymail 1). They tested this by replacing the flys
version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent then put
them in a maze with each wing wrapped in metal coil and then
sent a current through it so that the coil was magnetized in a way
which mimicked Earths electromagnetic field.
The flies responded the same exact way showing that we may
also have this sense that were unaware of. The test was also
reconducted with birds and the same result was found.
This could be another sense as it does involve the brain in a way
that we can see in other organisms, but we do not see in
ourselves.
In schools we are only taught about 5 but that is really outdated
and needs to change and needs to teach the new discoveries
such as sense of balance and temperature to provide our new
rising students with more education and intelligence.

http://fyppsychology.com/post/131415656280/psychology-fact18

http://neuwritesd.org/2015/04/09/y
ou-do-have-a-sixth-sense-and-more/
Works Cited
"The 5 Senses." The 5 Senses. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
"Do We Possess a Sixth Sense?" Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 21 Mar.
2016.
"You Do Have a Sixth Sense and More!" NeuWrite San Diego. N.p., 09 Apr. 2015. Web. 21
Mar. 2016.
Notes