Can You Tell Me More About the Eight Senses?
Vision (Sight)
Our sense of vision allows us to see and perceive the world around us using our eyes. Our eyes focus on and capture an image, but the image needs to be interpreted by our brain before we can make sense of what we're seeing. Vision helps us recognise colours, shapes, and objects.
Auditory (Hearing)
The auditory sense enables us to hear and process sounds. Auditory processing enables us to be aware of sounds and understand what they mean. It's a complicated process where different parts of your ear and the auditory nervous system work together smoothly so we can understand spoken language, enjoy music, and be aware of our environment.
Gustatory (Taste)
The gustatory sense helps us to detect different flavours, guiding us towards calorie-rich food and away from spoiled food or toxic substances. It helps us enjoy and distinguish between different tastes, like sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
Olfactory (Smell)
The olfactory sense helps us detect different odours or scents using our nose. It helps us identify and remember various smells, such as flowers, food, or perfumes.
Tactile (Touch)
The tactile sense allows us to feel physical sensations through our skin. It helps us perceive textures, temperatures, vibration, pressure, and pain. We have a greater concentration of tactile sensors in our hands, feet and mouth.
Proprioception
Proprioception (pro-pree-uh-sep-shuhn) is the sense that helps us know where our body is in space and how our body parts are positioned without needing to look. Can you touch your right forefinger to your left elbow tip when your eyes are closed? Could you hold an egg without breaking it by squeezing too hard? Can you bring a cup of water to your mouth at the right speed so the water doesn't slosh into your face? The proprioceptive system enables you to do all this. It helps us coordinate our movements, including their force and speed.
Vestibular
The vestibular sense helps us maintain balance, orientation, and spatial awareness. It involves the inner ear and provides information about movement, gravity, and changes in position. Imagine you had your eyes closed and then you tilted your body forward in your chair - you'd immediately have a sensation of how your body's position was changing in relation to gravity. This is your vestibular system at work. It also works with your vision so you can keep your eyes focused when moving.
Interoception
The sense of interoception helps us perceive internal sensations and bodily functions, such as hunger, thirst, heartbeat, and body temperature. It helps us understand and respond to our body's needs. Interoception includes all the signals from your internal organs, including your cardiovascular system, your lungs, your gut, your bladder and your kidneys.
A lot of the work to understand these signals happens without you even realising it: you won't notice the behind-the-scenes communication between your brain and body that keeps things like your blood pressure stable. But there are other signals, like when your bladder is full, that you are consciously aware of. Researchers have shown that how well we notice signals from inside our bodies can affect how we manage our feelings and how likely we are to have problems with our mental health, including anxiety and depression.
These senses work together to help our brain create a picture of the world and ourselves.