You have probably heard of the sixth sense. We don’t just mean the Bruce Willis movie that almost made you fall off your chair with its plot twist, but that extra sense we are meant to have. The one that gives you perception, or a distinct gut feeling.
But did you know that humans are meant to have even more than 6 senses?
You know the basics – sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste, and potentially perception. But scientists are in agreeance that there are far more human sense than just the basic ones.
What Is A Sense?
A sense is defined as ‘a faculty by which the body perceives an external stimulus’. In plain English, senses are something that the body’s sensory cells recognise and send a message to your brain to register.
So it is no wonder that there are thought to be more than five!
How Many Are There?
Research has proven there are at least 9 senses and could be as many as 21! These are just some of the sensations that can be recognised as senses:
Temperature – the ability to sense hot and cold
Pressure – sensing any pressure on your body
Itch – separate from touch, this is thought to be a distinct sense of its own
Sound – detecting vibrations that travel through the eardrums
Proprioception – the ability to detect your body parts in relation to other body parts
Muscle tension detection
Pain – not an overload of the touch sense as previously thought, but a sensory system of its own
Thirst & Hunger
Pretty fascinating stuff!