Cuántos sentidos dices que tenemos

How many senses do you say we have?

How many senses do you say we have?

EDUC 812Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y

Procesos CognitivosDra. D. Núñez

21 de septiembre de 2006

EDUC 812Enseñanza, Aprendizaje y

Procesos CognitivosDra. D. Núñez

21 de septiembre de 2006

Universidad del TuraboEscuela de Educación

Programa Doctoral

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Definitions

Senses are the physiological methods of perception.

A "sense" is a faculty by which outside stimuli are perceived.

School children are routinely taught that there are five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste; a classification first devised by Aristotle).

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Definitions

Sense - "a system that

consists of a sensory cell

type (or group of cell types)

that respond to a specific

kind of physical energy, and

that correspond to a defined

region (or group of regions)

within the brain where the

signals are received and

interpreted."

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Definitions

Where scientific

disputes arise is with

regard to the exact

classification of the

various cell types and

their mapping to

regions of the brain.

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Somatosensory Cortex

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How many?

Depending on the chosen method of classification,

somewhere between 9 and 21 human senses have

been identified.

Some individuals report synesthesia, the "crossing-

over" of one sense to another, or even of senses

associated with certain pure concepts.

For example, the letter "A" may appear "black," and

certain musical notes may seem "orange" or "blue," and

so forth.

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How many?

Sight or vision describes the ability to detect electromagnetic waves within the visible range (light) by the eye and the brain to interpret the image as "sight."

Motion

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How many?

Hearing or audition is the sense of sound perception.

It results from tiny hair fibres in the inner ear detecting the motion of a

membrane which vibrates in response to changes in the pressure

exerted by atmospheric particles.

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How many?

Sound can also be detected

as vibrations conducted

through the body by tact

(pressure perception).

Lower and higher frequencies

that can be heard are

detected this way only.

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How many?

Taste or gustation is one of the two main "chemical" senses. It is

well-known that there are at least four types of taste "buds"

(receptors) on the tongue.

There are anatomists who argue that these constitute four or more

different senses, given that each receptor conveys information to

a slightly different region of the brain.

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How many?

The four well-known receptors detect sweet, salt, sour,

and bitter, although the receptors for sweet and bitter

have not been conclusively identified. A fifth receptor,

for a sensation called umami, was first theorized in

1908 and its existence confirmed in 2000.

The umami receptor detects the amino acid glutamate, a flavor

commonly found in meat and in artificial flavourings such as

monosodium glutamate.

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How many?

Smell or olfaction is

the other "chemical"

sense. Unlike taste,

there are hundreds of

olfactory receptors,

each binding to a

particular molecular

feature, according to

current theory.

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How many?

The combination of features of the odor molecule makes up what the molecule's smell.

Smell is processed by the olfactory system.

Olfactory receptor neurons in the nose differ from most other neurons in that they die and regenerate on a regular basis.

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How many?

Somatic senses

Touch or tactition is the sense of pressure perception, generally in the skin. There are a variety of pressure receptors that respond to variations in pressure (firm, brushing, sustained, etc).

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How many?

Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold), also by the skin and including internal skin passages.

There is some disagreement about how many senses this represents

The thermoceptors in the skin are quite different from the homeostatic thermoceptors which provide feedback on internal body temperature.

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Touch

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How many?

Somatic sensesNociception is the perception of pain. It can be classified as from one to three senses, depending on the classification method. The three types of pain receptors are

cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones) and visceral (body organs).

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How many?

For a considerable time, it was believed that pain was simply the overloading of pressure receptors, but research in the first half of the 20th century indicate that pain is a distinct phenomenon that intertwines with all other senses, including touch.

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How many?

Other

Equilibrioception, the vestibular sense, is the perception of balance and is related to cavities containing fluid in the inner ear.

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There is some disagreement as to whether this also includes the sense of "direction" or orientation.

"direction" is a post-sensory cognitive awareness.

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How many?

Other

Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, is the perception of body awareness and is a sense that people rely on enormously, yet are frequently not aware of.

Proprioception is the "unconscious" awareness of where the various regions of the body are located at any one time.

closing the eyes and waving the hand around.

Assuming proper proprioceptive function, at no time will the person lose awareness of where the hand actually is, even though it is not being detected by any of the other senses).

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How many?Sense Input

1. Sight

2. Hearing

3. Touch

4. Taste

5. Smell

Visible light

Vibrations in the ear

Tactile contact

Chemical molecular

Olfactory molecular

6. Balance

7. Vestibular

8. Homeostasis

Kinesthetic geotropic

Repetitious movement

Molecular action

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How many?Sense Input

9. Pain

10. Eidetic imagery

11. Magnetic

12. Infrared

13. Ultraviolet

14. Ionic

15. Vomeronasal

16. Proximal

17. Electrical

18. Barometric

19. Geogravimetric

Nociception

Neuroelectrical image retention

Ferromagnetic orientation

Long electromagnetic waves

Short electromagnetic waves

Airborne ionic charge

Phermonic senses

Physical closeness

Surface charge

Atmospheric pressure

Sensing mass difference

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Senses and the Brain

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The Senses and Intelligence

Howard Gardner described multiple kinds of intelligence:

visual

musical

logical/mathematical

linguistic

movement

naturalistic

kinesthetic

Intrapersonal and

interpersonal intelligences

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The Senses and Intelligence

All correspond to particular senses.

Other senses (taste, smell) may also have

their own particular intelligences (Gardner

has said that his search for additional

intelligences continues).

The relationship between intelligence and

sensory perception thus appears to be a

close one.

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The Senses and Intelligence

The relationship can become too close, leading

to a dominance of reactive over contemplative

intelligence. Thus, highly intelligent people are

often described as 'quick' and 'sharp,'

suggesting the highly-tuned (even frazzled)

nature of their nervous system.

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Senses and Intelligence

Experiences that use most of the senses will stay with us far longer than memorizing information about them: walk in forest compared to looking at a picture of a forest!