What is your most valued sense of the five senses?

Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
Location
Central NY
What is your most valued sense of the five senses?

I consider the sense of touch as my most valued sense.
 

Talking about five senses, all that strikes our minds is eyesight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing.

But do you know that humans have a lot more than just five senses? Scientists have done deep research on this topic and have come up with around 22-23 senses that make us actual human beings.

For me it would be sight. Without my sight I wouldn't want to live.
 
Mr. Ed said:
Wow! so many to choose from
Click to expand...
My thoughts, too.

Second to vision would be hearing. There have been times where I have been so plugged up account being sick with the flu/cold bug, that I could hardly hear, and it made me feel that I was fit for a rubber-room. I went crazy, I could not function properly (daytime), and I couldn't sleep properly... the silence was frightening to me.
 
Gaer said:
Sight is most important, As I'm an artist.
but smell is most magical.
Touch, as feeling the flesh of a man would be the most sensual.
But think of all the senses to discriminate the feelings of love, that are in the heart of the soul!
Ah!
Click to expand...
Smell and touch is so important to me, too, Gaer, but without hearing, I feel blind (if that makes any sense) as crazy as that may sound.
 
The sixth sense:

This sense is called proprioception (pronounced “pro-pree-o-ception”); it's an awareness of where our limbs are and how our bodies are positioned in space. And like the other senses — vision, hearing, and so on — it helps our brains navigate the world. Scientists sometimes refer to it as our “sixth sense.”
 
Paco Dennis said:
The sixth sense:

This sense is called proprioception (pronounced “pro-pree-o-ception”); it's an awareness of where our limbs are and how our bodies are positioned in space. And like the other senses — vision, hearing, and so on — it helps our brains navigate the world. Scientists sometimes refer to it as our “sixth sense.”
Click to expand...

🐱 Cats have this in spades. Of that, I'm jealous...
 
A few more senses to share with everyone (some repeats)...

Pressure: The pressure receptors of the skin respond to force applied per surface area of skin. It is very sensitive and can pressure even less than that of the legs of a mosquito.

Itch: Surprisingly this is actually a distinct sensory system that is different from the other touch related senses.

Thermoception: This is the system of all sensory organs responsible for monitoring temperature change in the body. This includes the receptors in the skin and the internal temperature monitoring system of the brain used to monitor and regulate body temperature.

Proprioception: When a mosquito lands on your leg you don’t need to look at it to immediately slap that exact position to kill the mosquito. Even if you almost never kill the mosquito have you ever wondered how you automatically know exactly where to slap? Of course you felt the mosquito bite by sense of pressure, pain and touch but another sense is at play here; Proprioception. This is the sense that gives us the ability to know where our organs are, relative to other body parts. This sense is what is tested when police officers pull over a drunk driver. The “Close your eyes and touch your nose” test is to see this sense at work.

Nociception: This is the sense of pain. It was once thought to be the result of overloading the other senses such as the sense of touch, pressure or tension but it is a distinct sensory system on its own. There are three distinct types of pain receptors: Cutaneous, Somatic, and Visceral pain receptors which are respectively the Skin, Bones and Joints, and The Body Organs. Pain is felt when the microscopic pain receptors at the end of nerve cells or neurons are activated by damage to body tissues. This activation triggers an electric signal to the spinal cord and then to the brain giving the sensation of pain.

Tension sensors: These are sensors found in places such as muscles and allow the brain to monitor muscle tension.

Stretch sensors: These are found in places such as the lungs, bladder, stomach, the gastrointestinal tract, and even in blood vessels. A type of stretch receptor that senses dilation of blood vessels is also often involved in headaches.

Equilibrioception: This is also known as the sense of balance. This sense allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes. It also allows the body to perceive Gravity. The organ responsible for this is called the Vestibular Labyrinthine system and is located in the inner ear. This is why the ear is also said to be used for balance. People who have been seriously drunk or had a temporary loss of balance know how important this organ is. Without the sense of balance properly functioning, a person can’t tell up from down and thus moving from one location to another is near impossible. I personally cracked open my head trying to walk without balance.

Magnetoception: This can also be seen as some as the sense of Direction. This is the sense that gives us the ability to detect magnetic fields which is very useful in finding direction when detecting the earth’s magnetic field. Humans however don’t have a strong sense of direction and can easily get lost because of that. Some animals, like birds (e.g. the Carrier pigeon), have a very high sense of direction and seldom get lost in transit. This mechanism is not completely understood but the working theory is that it is connected to the deposits of ferric oxide in our noses. This theory is more believable seeing that people who were given magnetic implants had better magnetoception than others without.

Chemoreceptors: Aside from those in the tongue and nose, other chemoreceptors that respond to drugs and blood hormones are distributed around the body and used to detect such. This is monitored by an area in the medulla. The body responds accordingly to the message passed to the effectors after the chemical has been identified by the brain. One of such reactions is vomiting.

Thirst: This system allows the body to monitor its hydration levels so your body knows when it needs a drink. The resulting sensation is called thirst.

Hunger: This system allows your body to detect absence of food and prompts the feeling of hunger to alert us to the need to eat something.

Time: This is one of the fiercely debated as it is not known conclusively how the body performs the remarkable feat of keeping to time. Experimental data has nonetheless shown that human beings have a very remarkably accurate sense of time, particularly when younger. The mechanism for this seems to be a distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Long term time keeping seems to be monitored by the Suprachiasmatic nuclei (responsible for the Circadian rhythm). Short term time keeping is handled by other cell systems.
 
Aunt Marg said:
A few more senses to share with everyone (some repeats)...

Pressure: The pressure receptors of the skin respond to force applied per surface area of skin. It is very sensitive and can pressure even less than that of the legs of a mosquito.

Itch: Surprisingly this is actually a distinct sensory system that is different from the other touch related senses.

Thermoception: This is the system of all sensory organs responsible for monitoring temperature change in the body. This includes the receptors in the skin and the internal temperature monitoring system of the brain used to monitor and regulate body temperature.

Proprioception: When a mosquito lands on your leg you don’t need to look at it to immediately slap that exact position to kill the mosquito. Even if you almost never kill the mosquito have you ever wondered how you automatically know exactly where to slap? Of course you felt the mosquito bite by sense of pressure, pain and touch but another sense is at play here; Proprioception. This is the sense that gives us the ability to know where our organs are, relative to other body parts. This sense is what is tested when police officers pull over a drunk driver. The “Close your eyes and touch your nose” test is to see this sense at work.

Nociception: This is the sense of pain. It was once thought to be the result of overloading the other senses such as the sense of touch, pressure or tension but it is a distinct sensory system on its own. There are three distinct types of pain receptors: Cutaneous, Somatic, and Visceral pain receptors which are respectively the Skin, Bones and Joints, and The Body Organs. Pain is felt when the microscopic pain receptors at the end of nerve cells or neurons are activated by damage to body tissues. This activation triggers an electric signal to the spinal cord and then to the brain giving the sensation of pain.

Tension sensors: These are sensors found in places such as muscles and allow the brain to monitor muscle tension.

Stretch sensors: These are found in places such as the lungs, bladder, stomach, the gastrointestinal tract, and even in blood vessels. A type of stretch receptor that senses dilation of blood vessels is also often involved in headaches.

Equilibrioception: This is also known as the sense of balance. This sense allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes. It also allows the body to perceive Gravity. The organ responsible for this is called the Vestibular Labyrinthine system and is located in the inner ear. This is why the ear is also said to be used for balance. People who have been seriously drunk or had a temporary loss of balance know how important this organ is. Without the sense of balance properly functioning, a person can’t tell up from down and thus moving from one location to another is near impossible. I personally cracked open my head trying to walk without balance.

Magnetoception: This can also be seen as some as the sense of Direction. This is the sense that gives us the ability to detect magnetic fields which is very useful in finding direction when detecting the earth’s magnetic field. Humans however don’t have a strong sense of direction and can easily get lost because of that. Some animals, like birds (e.g. the Carrier pigeon), have a very high sense of direction and seldom get lost in transit. This mechanism is not completely understood but the working theory is that it is connected to the deposits of ferric oxide in our noses. This theory is more believable seeing that people who were given magnetic implants had better magnetoception than others without.

Chemoreceptors: Aside from those in the tongue and nose, other chemoreceptors that respond to drugs and blood hormones are distributed around the body and used to detect such. This is monitored by an area in the medulla. The body responds accordingly to the message passed to the effectors after the chemical has been identified by the brain. One of such reactions is vomiting.

Thirst: This system allows the body to monitor its hydration levels so your body knows when it needs a drink. The resulting sensation is called thirst.

Hunger: This system allows your body to detect absence of food and prompts the feeling of hunger to alert us to the need to eat something.

Time: This is one of the fiercely debated as it is not known conclusively how the body performs the remarkable feat of keeping to time. Experimental data has nonetheless shown that human beings have a very remarkably accurate sense of time, particularly when younger. The mechanism for this seems to be a distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Long term time keeping seems to be monitored by the Suprachiasmatic nuclei (responsible for the Circadian rhythm). Short term time keeping is handled by other cell systems.
Click to expand...
Wow Marg! I never even thoght of most of those! Incredible!
What about FEELINGS? Compassion, love, fear, desire, empathy, sympathy, sadness, .etc. Are these considered senses?
 
Eye's of course
You wonder how folks like Helen Keller had the courage to face each day.
Question, she had a faint memory of her senses before sickness took away her sight, hearing...
I really wonder about her emotional life, she was a brave human being.

Socialized Medicine: Helen Keller escaped a life as a 'dummy,' only because her parents had money.
Those born with multiple afflictions-without money were doomed.
 
Eyesight is my choice as well.

Those that Aunt Marg mentioned are called receptor senses and many are in some way related regardless of how distantly to our original 5 senses.

Feelings are related to emotional responses to certain stimuli.

Sense are inborn in us.
 
Life would be tough without eyesight. You wouldn't be able to read or watch movies, getting around would be difficult and scary if you had to navigate with a stick, you wouldn't be able to read or post in SFs without special software. It would be a challenge to do simple things like making a turkey sandwich.

If I had to choose one sense to do without, I think I'd choose smell. I don't have a very good sense of smell, anyway, so it wouldn't be that great of a loss.

I think if I had to rank them in order of importance, it would be
  1. Sight
  2. Hearing
  3. Taste
  4. Touch
  5. Smell
 
To me, eyesight and hearing are the most important. My old Dad developed Macular Degeneration in his later years, and that lack of vision just destroyed his ability to do nearly anything. Hearing is very important, also, but at least there are hearing aids that can help with that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top