Because we’re glued to screens all day long, we often ignore sensations other than sound and sight. Yet they are always working. When we are more attentive, we feel the roughness and smoothness of objects, the stiffness of our shoulders, and the softness of bread.
In the morning, we might feel the tingle of toothpaste, hear or feel the sound of running water in the shower, smell shampoo, and later feel the aroma of freshly brewed water. coffee.
Aristotle told us that there is. five senses. But he also said that the world is made of of the five elementsand we don’t believe it anymore. And modern research shows that we may actually have dozens of senses.
Related: Scientists reveal 5 surprising facts about the sense of smell
Almost all of our experience It’s multi-sensory. We don’t see, hear, smell, or touch things in separate luggage. They occur simultaneously within the unified experience of the world around us and ourselves.
what we feel affects us what we seeand what we see affects what we are hearing. Differences in the smell of shampoo may affect the way you Recognize hair texture. For example, the scent of roses makes hair smoother.
The smell of low-fat yogurt can give it a richer, thicker impression in the mouth without the need for added emulsifiers. perception of smell in the mouththe fluid that rises into the nasal passages changes depending on the viscosity of the fluid we ingest.
My long-time collaborator, Professor Charles Spence of Oxford’s Crossmodal Institute, told his neuroscience colleagues: please believe that there is From 22 33 senses.
These include: proprioceptionthis allows you to know where the limbs are without having to look at them. Our sense of balance is vestibular system It not only affects the ear canal, but also vision and proprioception.
Another example is interoception, which senses changes in our own bodies, such as a slight increase in heart rate or hunger. We also have a sense of agency when we move our limbs. This feeling can be lost. For stroke patients Sometimes I even believe that someone else is moving my arm.
What there is is sense of ownership. For example, a stroke patient may feel that their arm is not their own, even though they can still feel it.
Some traditional senses are a combination of several senses. For example, touch includes pain, temperature, itching, and touch. when we taste somethingIn fact, we experience a combination of three senses: touch, smell, taste, or taste, which combine to create the flavors we perceive in food and drinks.
Taste covers the sensations produced by receptors on the tongue that can detect salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (flavours). What about mint, mango, melon, strawberry, and raspberry?
Our tongues don’t have raspberry receptors, and raspberry flavor isn’t a combination of sweet, sour, and bitter. There is no palate calculation for fruit flavors.
we recognize them through them Combined mechanism of the tongue and nose. it’s the smell It contributes most to what we call tasting.
However, this does not mean that it inhales odors from the environment. When we chew or slurp, odor compounds are released and travel from the mouth through the nasal pharynx at the back of the throat to the nose.
Touch also plays a rolelinking taste and smell, modifying our preferences for whether eggs are runny or hard and the velvety, luxurious goo of chocolate.
Vision is influenced by the vestibular system. When you’re on a plane on the ground, look down at the cabin. Look again on the way up.
Visually, everything is in the same relationship as when it’s on the ground, but it “looks” like the front of the cabin is higher than you. What you “see” is a combined effect of your vision and ear canal that tells you that you are leaning backwards.
The senses offer a wealth of research, and the Center for Sensory Research at the London School of Advanced Studies brings together philosophers, neuroscientists and psychologists.
In 2013, the Center launched the Rethinking the Senses project, led by my colleague, the late Professor Colin Blakemore. We discovered a mechanism by which our bodies can become lighter or heavier by changing the sound of our footsteps.
We learned how Tate Britain’s audio guide helps visitors remember the visual details of a painting by speaking to the listener as if the model in the portrait was speaking. We discovered how aircraft noise interferes with our taste perception and why you should always drink tomato juice on a plane.
White noise reduces perception of salt, sweetness, and sourness, but not umami, and reduces tomato and tomato juice. Lots of flavor. This means that the aircraft noise enhances the flavor.
Related: Scientists think they’ve identified an unknown taste in human cells
The latest interactive exhibition features feeling of being wrapped up At Coal Drops Yard in London’s King’s Cross, people can discover for themselves how our senses work and why they don’t work the way we think they do.
For example, the illusion of size and weight is explained by a set of small, medium, and large curling stones. People can lift each one up and decide which one is the heaviest. The smallest items feel the heaviest, but if you put them on a scale, you’ll find that they all weigh the same.
But there are always so many things around you that show you how complex your senses are if you just stop for a moment and take it all in. So the next time you walk outside or taste a meal, take a moment to understand how your senses work together to feel all of your senses.
barry smithDirector of the Institute of Philosophy; Institute for Advanced Study, University of London
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License. please read original article.
