Our Other Senses: EQ: What are our lesser known senses and how do they allow us to make sense of the world around us?
Touch: Always in Use: Our accessory organ is our skin This allows us to tell what is touching us at any time and where it is touching us. Unlike you other senses, your sense of touch does not “shut off” when you sleep
Olfaction and Gustation: Linked In Many Ways While technically separate, these work together in many ways. We access smell with our nose and taste with our taste buds. While we do not taste everything, our sense of taste is highly impacted by our sense of smell This explains why it can be difficult for us to eat “stinky” food People without a sense of smell will have less of a sense of taste
Vestibular: Helping Us Balance Our vestibular sense, which is accessed by small fluid filled sacks in our ears, allows us to tell the position and angle of our head in space This allows us to maintain a sense of balance and initiate balanced movements Irregularity in this system can cause vertigo
Kinesthesia: Helping Us Get Around awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints. This system allows us to move our bodies in a conscious manner People with high kinesthesia usually make good athletes and dancers
Proprioception: What Time is it Anyway?: Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. This sense is important when we are exerting ourselves to make sure we do not get an injury.
Pain: Does This Hurt?: The sense of pain also called Nociception Within our bodies, this is accessed within our Nociceptors Pain and the “threshold” of pain can differ vastly from one individual to another Some people are born without the ability to feel pain
What Else???: While these might not be gully developed senses with sensory organs (with the exception of our brain),we have a sense of… -time -place -direction -rhythm -wellness/sickness