Surprising Facts About the Human Senses We Bet You Didn’t Know

Our view of perception has long been shaped by the widespread misconception that humans only have five senses: taste, smell, touch, sound, and smell. Recent scientific discoveries, however, cast doubt on this idea and point to a more nuanced sensory environment. According to neurologists and academics, humans may actually possess many more senses, including proprioception (the knowledge of one’s own bodily position) and equilibrioception (the sensation of balance). This larger picture highlights the complex ways in which humans interact with our surroundings and improves our understanding of human biology.

The Expanding Definition of Human Senses

In the past, the principal sensory organs connected to each of the five senses—sight through the eyes, hearing through the ears, taste through the tongue, and touch through the skin—were used to categorize them. These senses only make up a small portion of our sensory abilities, despite being essential for navigating our surroundings. Additional senses including proprioception (the feeling of body position), equilibrioception (the sense of balance), and nociception (the perception of pain) have been identified by neuroscientists. Our daily lives are greatly impacted by these senses, which have an impact on everything from movement to emotional control.

Furthermore, some scientists suggest that, taking into account different physiological and cognitive activities, the number of human senses may perhaps be as high as 53. For example, interoception—the sense of internal body cues like hunger or heart rate—has important consequences for emotional awareness and mental health. This sophisticated understanding emphasizes how crucial it is to acknowledge and use all of our sensory modalities in order to improve our general state of wellbeing.

The nine senses in humans

In addition to the five senses, humans possess four more senses, which are as follows:

Equilibrioception (Balance): Humans have vestibular control, which allows them to balance and coordinate. It supports upright sitting, standing, and walking and is housed in the inner ear. It induces nausea and vertigo when disturbed.

Nociception (Pain): Our body’s sense of pain is known as nociception. In order to keep us safe, this sense alerts our nociceptors and pain receptors, thereby protecting us.

Thermoception (Temperature): The body’s ability to sense ambient temperature is known as thermoception. We can feel the heat of a stove if we put our hands near one. This sense helps us avoid injuries by keeping us conscious of our surroundings.

Proprioception (Body awareness): Proprioception, another name for kinesthesia, is the awareness of our body’s location, movements, and activities. Our body recognizes these through the receptors in our tendons, muscles, and joints. This sense allows us to climb stairs without looking down. 

The twenty-one senses of humans 

There may be a total of 21 senses in humans, according to another notion. Interoception, the brain’s awareness of our body’s interior state, is one of the 21 senses. It alerts the brain to our wellbeing by sending signals from interior organs.

This sense enables us to perceive internal states such as heart rate, hunger, thirst, and inflation of the lungs, among others. It can significantly impact our mental health and have an impact on how we regulate our emotions.

Further senses beyond 21 may exist, depending on how you categorize them. For instance, taste can be categorized into five senses: bitter, sour, sweet, salty, and savory.

Follow Wat-Not on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram