LeBrok
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When I was in school I was taught that people have 5 senses: the sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Since then the sense of touch lost it's coherence and mushroomed into 4 separate senses: the sense of touch, pain, heat and itch. All of these sensations can be define as separate senses because all of them have their own cells, dedicated neural networks and brain sectors.
Pain, heat and touch were well established before. Here is a quick nice read:
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/skin-touch/a/1388/
However sense of itch was just discovered:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?artic.../title/Distinct-Neural-Pathway-for-Itchiness/
I guess they were all blended into one sense of touch, because they are all mixed together, mostly in our skin, all over our bodies. Unlike 4 other sense which are very localized and well defined like eyes or ears.
Here is one more senses discovered in recent decades:
Proprioceptors - sense of limbs location and body position. That's why we can do complicated physical activities not tripping and hitting ourselves, well not too much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
We also know and understand sense of balance and acceleration. Simply speaking it is sensed by movement of liquids through ear canals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrioception
So how many independent senses are well established?
1. Sight
2. Hearing
3. Taste
4. Smell
5. Touch
6. Pain
7. Thermal
8. Itch
9. Proprioception or Kinesthetic sense
10. Equilibrioception, or vestibular sense
All these senses help us to communicate with outside environment and move around in it.
There are many more not listed senses, like feeling our internal organs and bodily functions, but they don't serve as communication with external environment, therefore let's skip them.
Pain, heat and touch were well established before. Here is a quick nice read:
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/skin-touch/a/1388/
However sense of itch was just discovered:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?artic.../title/Distinct-Neural-Pathway-for-Itchiness/
I guess they were all blended into one sense of touch, because they are all mixed together, mostly in our skin, all over our bodies. Unlike 4 other sense which are very localized and well defined like eyes or ears.
Here is one more senses discovered in recent decades:
Proprioceptors - sense of limbs location and body position. That's why we can do complicated physical activities not tripping and hitting ourselves, well not too much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
We also know and understand sense of balance and acceleration. Simply speaking it is sensed by movement of liquids through ear canals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrioception
So how many independent senses are well established?
1. Sight
2. Hearing
3. Taste
4. Smell
5. Touch
6. Pain
7. Thermal
8. Itch
9. Proprioception or Kinesthetic sense
10. Equilibrioception, or vestibular sense
All these senses help us to communicate with outside environment and move around in it.
There are many more not listed senses, like feeling our internal organs and bodily functions, but they don't serve as communication with external environment, therefore let's skip them.