The senses allow man, among others smell, see and hear. In the classic approach, five senses are distinguished, but some people express the view that a person can have definitely more, even as many as 21. Read about the basic and additional types of human senses and check their functions.

Contents:

  1. Senses: types and functions
    • Sense of sight
    • Sense of taste
    • Sense of touch
    • Sense of smell
    • Sense of hearing
  2. Less frequently distinguished human senses

Senses- their one definition simply does not exist in the world. In the simplest terms, the sense can be understood as a group of specialized receptor cells that have the ability to receive certain physical stimuli and transmit the information obtained later to specific regions of the brain where they are finally interpreted.

Senses: types and functions

In general, it is not necessary to convince anyone that the senses are very important - after all, our eyesight allows us to see the surrounding world, and thanks to hearing we are able to hear what other people say to us and thus communicate with them. The human senses, however, are actually much more important than it is potentially supposed to be. Well, they even have a warning role - as examples here we can give the fact that thanks to the sense of taste we are able to avoid eating bad food or that when we see the red light on the signaling device, we do not go through the pedestrian crossing and thus avoid the risk of crossing a pedestrian crossing. some car.

In the classical approach - the authorship of which is attributed to Aristotle - there are five human senses. They are:

  • eyesight,
  • flavor,
  • touch,
  • sense of smell,
  • hearing

Sense of sight

Eyeballs are responsible for the sense of sight in humans. It is there that the receptor cells that receive visible light are located - these are cones and rods. But just because these structures receive information is not yet enough for us to be able to see any thing. Rods and suppositories can be compared to workers of the lowest order: they only perceive the stimulus that reaches them, thenhowever, how the image we see will ultimately look like depends on completely different structures - we are talking about the visual cortex of the brain. The truth is that initially … a completely rotated image is created - only after the appropriate centers analyze the information that comes to them, we are able to see the world in the way we see it.

Sense of taste

Receptor cells, known as taste buds, are responsible for the taste. They are located mainly in the area of ​​the tongue, in addition, they are also located, although much less numerous, in the area of ​​the palate, upper esophagus and larynx. Traditionally, there are five types of taste buds in humans - the individual ones responsible for perceiving such tastes as:

  • sweet taste,
  • s alty flavor,
  • bitter taste,
  • sour flavor,
  • umami flavor (sometimes referred to as meat).

Knowledge about the sense of taste was constantly updated over time. Even the last of these flavors, i.e. umami, was distinguished much later than the others. In addition, it is now more and more often mentioned that most likely in humans there are also other taste buds that are responsible for the perception of fatty and metallic taste.

Sense of touch

The receptors responsible for the sense of touch are located throughout basically the entire human skin - this is why it is often mentioned that the skin is actually the largest receptor organ in humans. The sense of touch is quite complex - thanks to it, we can assess the shape as well as the texture or size of the objects we touch. As mentioned, the tactile receptors are located on the surface of the entire body, but the most of them are in the fingertips, and the least of them are on the skin of the back.

Sense of smell

The receptors related to the sense of smell are located primarily in the nasal cavity. They function in a way similar to taste receptors - these structures are stimulated by various chemical molecules that reach them. However, just as there are five (or seven) taste receptors, there are definitely more olfactory receptors - it is because each of them is responsible for reacting to a completely different type of chemical molecules.

Sense of hearing

The ear is responsible for the sense of hearing - this complex organ consists of the outer, middle and inner ear. We hear sounds due to the fact that they vibrateair, caused by acoustic waves, travel through the ossicles and finally into the structures of the inner ear. Ultimately, these vibrations are "transformed" into electrical impulses - they reach specific areas of the cerebral cortex, where they are analyzed.

Less frequently distinguished human senses

Given that the classical division of the senses was developed by Aristotle, it is perhaps no surprise that it is often simply considered obsolete. More and more often it is said that a person has more than 5 senses - such would be, among others :

  • temperature sense : the sensation of changes in temperature is caused by specific thermoreceptors, located both within the skin and in the internal parts of the body;
  • proprioception : the receptors responsible for it are present in muscles and ligaments, thanks to proprioception we know where individual parts of our body are at a given moment - it allows us, for example, during neurological examination, eyes closed, hit the nose with a finger;
  • sense of balance : the receptors related to it are located in the hemispherical canals, classified as the structures of the ear;
  • sense of pain (nociception) : a very important sense for which pain receptors are responsible, i.e. nociceptors - after all, it is thanks to them, for example, when some part of our body has contact with fire, we feel pain and as a result we retreat, avoiding burns.

Just as highlighting the above-mentioned senses can usually be explained quite simply, sometimes other senses are also described, where their isolation is criticized. This is e.g. with the sense of thirst or hunger, but also with the sense of the passage of time (in the case of the latter there are no specific receptors that would be responsible for the fact that we are aware of the passing of time - therefore the sense of the passage of time does not meet the general definition of this what a sense is, and for this reason it is often denied to list it among other senses.)

It is impossible to mention here another, quite often mentioned, sense - here we are talking about intuition, which is often referred to as the sixth sense.

Worth knowing

Senses unheard of in humans

Just as the superiority of people over other species living on the globe is often emphasized, in the case of the senses, man … is actually definitely "poorer" than other creatures.

Well, in animals there are senses that people simply do not have. Such are, among others echolocation (usede.g. through dolphins or bats the ability to generate and receive ultrasounds) or the sense of recognizing the strength of the water current and the direction in which it flows (fish and amphibians are equipped with them).

Another sense that is not encountered in humans is magnetoreception (the ability to detect a magnetic field - thanks to it, even migratory birds or bees do not need to use a GPS or a compass, because it is magnetoreception that allows them to orientate themselves in space).

Category:

Psychology