15 Interesting Facts About the 5 Senses

Introduction:

Our senses are incredibly important for navigating the world around us and experiencing life. While the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste are typically discussed, there are many interesting aspects that we may not know about them. In the following article, we’ll dive into 15 interesting facts about the five senses that you may not have known before.

Fact 1: Human Beings Have A Sixth Sense

Taking the understanding of the five senses beyone, human beings actually have a sixth sense as well. This sixth sense is known as proprioception, which is the sense of how your body is oriented in space. We don’t usually think about it because it is an unconscious understanding, but it’s still there and allows us to navigate our environment.

Fact 2: Taste Comes From Smell

Many of us think of taste as a separate sense, but actually it is heavily connected with smell. Without smell, most food would taste bland and flavorless; as we eat, odor molecules are sent up through the back of our noses, leading to a scent and flavor combo. That’s why food tastes differently when we have a cold and why food doesn’t taste as good when we eat with a face shield or mask on.

Fact 3: Five Senses Can Work Together

While the five senses are typically discussed as completely separate, they actually have the ability to work together. One example is haptic perception, which is the sense of using all five senses to complete a task. By combining sound, touch, smell, taste, and sight, this sense is able to build an understanding of what is in front of us.

Fact 4: Our Eyes Follow Never-Ending Movements

This fact about vision may be hard to wrap your head around, but our eyes actually never stop moving. In periods of inactivity or deep concentration, our eyes go into a state called suppression, where the images our eyes receive aren’t actually seen consciously. It’s broken up by regular momentary explorations that occur when our eyes move quickly, which is why we may notice something quickly and then look away without realizing it.

Fact 5: Our Taste Buds Are Incredibly Versatile

Our taste buds actually contain receptors for several different kinds of tastes. These tastes include sweet, sour, salty, umami, and bitter. What’s interesting is that as humans age, our ability to taste sweet and salty tastes diminishes, while our ability to taste sour and bitter tastes stays the same.

Fact 6: Humans Hear Ultrasound

We mostly hear in a range of 20hz to 20,000hz, known as the audioble range. However, human hearing is actually quite sensitive to sound beyond this range; people are able to hear frequencies from 6 to 9hz, which is known as infrasound, and up to a whopping 22,000hz, known as ultrasound.

Fact 7: Touch Is The Most Sensitive Sense

At its peak sensitivity, touch is actually much greater than both sight and hearing. For instance, humans can detect as little as 1/10 of a mN of pressure, which is the equivalent of a butterfly landing on your arm. Other areas of the body – such as fingertips, lips, and the tongue – can detect as little as 0.01mN of pressure.

Fact 8: Tastebuds Re-Grow Every 10-14 Days

Unlike our other senses, our taste buds actually regenerate every 10-14 days, making them the only cells in our body that can do this. This helps us stay in tune with our taste, making sure to detect all subtle changes in food or drink.

Fact 9: Natural Vision Is Only 5% Of Our Sight

Our eyes are capable of so much more than just what we see with our “natural” vision. Only about 5 percent of what we’re actually seeing is what our eyes detect normally. The other 95 percent of what our eyes see is actually based on what our minds and memories have learned.

Fact 10: Touch Is Connected To Other Senses

Touch is intricately connected to the other senses, as it is linked to both smell and taste. For instance, because the part of the brain that processes smell and taste is closely linked with the part of the brain that experiences tactile sensations, the sense of touch is connected with our ability to taste and smell.

Fact 11:We See Lights In Different Ways

When it comes to perceiving light, humans aren’t all the same. While the majority of people can see color, approximately 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women lack the ability to accurately distinguish between different colors. And while most people can see in the wavelengths of visible light, some have the ability to see beyond this, sensing ultraviolet light and other wavelengths.

Fact 12: We Hear Differently Too

Just like seeing, hearing also varies between people. While the majority of people have normal hearing, ranging between 12-22kHz, some people may have what is known as directional hearing, hearing noises and sounds at different intensities depending on their direction.

Fact 13: Smell Is Uniquely Personal

This is an interesting fact about smell that you may not have known before: humans actually have a unique “scent print” that is determined by genetics. Scientists have even taken it one step further, using this unique scent print to distinguish between identical twins.

Fact 14: Humans Can See 150 Million Colors

The human eye is capable of discerning up to 150 million colors. That’s a far cry from the 7-10 million colors that are described in the standard color wheel!

Fact 15: Smell Can Invoke Memories

What’s interesting about smell is that it’s incredibly memory-rich. While the other senses are rooted in the present, smell has the ability to take us back to our past by triggering powerful memories that we may not have thought of in years.

Conclusion

The five senses are incredible and fascinating, and there is still much that we continue to discover about them. We can truly appreciate them even more now that we have a better understanding of the interesting facts that make them so special.