Charmaine A.

Guillermo

2010-33189

English 10

October 8, 2010

The Human Senses: New Categorization,

Working Mechanism, And Distribution and Development in the Human Body

The conceptual and existential importance of the sensorium has been quite evident in the
world of research, philosophy, and science. Long before being rational individuals, human
beings have been described as sensing and social beings who communicate in and with and
through the senses. The senses have been a puzzle for millennia. The same old questions have
been recurring as to the superiority and inferiority of the senses with respect to rationale, and the
inquiries it evoked concerning the methods of science [ CITATION Syn932 \l 1033 ].

Brynie (2009) has considered what the neuroscientist Richard Restak quoted which
illustrated the aptitude of the human brain, “The [human] brain is the only organ in the known
universe that seeks to understand itself” (p. 2). The organ’s peculiarity among the others has
been defined into two varied terms – brain plasticity and brain constructiveness. Plasticity means
that the brain changes throughout life, which further implies perplexing comprehension of our
consciousness and senses, and the essence of what it means to be human. Brain constructiveness
mirrors how our brain builds the reality, molding every input to what it expects, imagines, and
wishes for. This trend supports the idea that no two individuals could draw the same conclusions
about the information the senses have collected, since the personal worlds are constructions built
using the raw materials of the senses which are greatly modified during the construction process.
 The human senses are the fundamental means of gathering information and
understanding the world around [ CITATION Bjo101 \l 1033 ]. Basically, this drift can be described
either by “sensation” or “perception”. Thomas Reid (1785), the philosopher who made the
original distinction of the two, proposed that the crucial difference was that perceptions always
refer to external objects, whereas sensations refer to experiences within a person that are not
linked to external objects [ CITATION Gol89 \l 1033 ].

Wisegeek (2010) has affirmed that there are between nine and twenty-one human senses,
depending on the profession to be asked from and what the definition of senses would be. The
generally agreed minimum is nine and these are touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing,
thermoception, nociception, equilibrioception, and proprioception. As a rule, for something to
qualify as a sense requires a free-standing sense organ associated with it and the source of
information is a force originating from outside the brain. At times, thought or intuition is
mistakenly considered as a sense. Thoughts are not directly acquired from reality but rather from
the union of sensory organs with which they are connected. There are instances when senses are
perceived concurrently and this phenomenon is termed synesthesia, which is relatively rare.

Perception’s action orientation has raised an interesting distinction among the various
senses with respect to the proximity of the perceiver to the object of perception. Touch and taste
require direct contact between the perceiver and the source of stimulation. Because of this
restriction, taste and touch can be considered near senses. The sense of smell is also effectively a
near sense. Volatile chemicals from an odorous substance are diluted with distance, so smell
works more effectively for substances in the general vicinity of the nose. Seeing and hearing, in
contrast, can be thought of as far senses, or distance senses. The eyes and ears can pick up
information originating from remote sources. They allow one to have some perceptual contact
with objects located too far away for immediate grasp. These two senses serve as able substitutes
for actual locomotor exploration of the environment, enabling one to explore the surroundings
vicariously. They provide early, advance warning of approaching danger. [ CITATION Gol89 \p 6
\y \t \l 1033 ]

Perceiving usually requires some action on the part of the perceiver. Perception is an
active process, an idea especially championed by the American psychologist James J. Gibson
(1966). He affirmed that “This active process works to guide behavior, thereby stimulating more
activity. Behavior depends on what is perceived.” [ CITATION Gol89 \p 6 \n \y \t \l 1033 ]

Learning about perception satisfies an intellectual curiosity about ourselves and the world
we live in. Perception can be thought of as each individual’s personal theory of reality, a kind of
knowledge –gathering process that defines our view of the world. [ CITATION Gol89 \p 9 \n \y \t \l
1033 ]

Incidentally, this distinction between the near and far senses has an important behavioral
consequence. Any crucial reaction called for by taste must be executed swiftly. Action places
itself first and then the conscious thinking about what it was that triggered the reflex action.
However, in the case of the far senses, one is usually dealing with objects located some distance
away. This distance permits the luxury of evaluating the potential consequences of one’s actions.
[ CITATION Gol89 \p 7 \n \y \t \l 1033 ]

Sensation depends on a process of movement or affection from the outside, wherein a

certain change has to occur. The use of the word “perceive” happens in two ways: what has the
power to hear or see, “hears” or “sees”, even though it is at the moment asleep; and that what is
actually seeing or hearing, “sees” or “hears”. Hence, “sense” too must have two meanings: sense
potential, and sense actual. Similarly, “to be sentient” means either to have a certain power and
potential of sensation or to manifest certain activity. Everything that is acted upon or moved is
acted upon by an agent that is actually at work. Hence, it is that in one sense, what acts and what
is acted upon are like, in terms of the standard state of condition [ CITATION Kap421 \p 76 \y \l
1033 ].

The term “knower” also has also followed the same fashion: either falling within the class
of beings that know or have knowledge, or possessing knowledge of syntax behaving unspoken.
Each of these is so called as having a certain potentiality, but with a strict difference - the one
being a potential knower, and the other being able to realize his knowledge in actual knowing at
will in the absence of any external counteracting cause. A third meaning of a “knower” has been
unconsciously identified as one already realizing the knowledge in actuality [ CITATION Kap421 \p
77 \n \y \t \l 1033 ].
 The expression “to be acted upon” also has been defined in more than one meaning:
either the “extinction of one of two contraries by the other” or the “maintenance of what is
potential by the agency of what is actual” [ CITATION Kap421 \p 77 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] . Kaplan
(1942) also stated the following:

And already like what is acted upon, with such likeness as is compatible with
one’s being actual and the other potential. For what possesses knowledge becomes an
actual knower by a transition which is either not an alteration of it at all or at least an
alteration in a quite different sense from the usual meaning (p. 77).

Actual sensation corresponds to the stage of the implementation of knowledge and

comprehension. Of the cases compared, there has concluded a difference: the objects that has
excited and provoked the sensory powers to activity, the seen, the heard, etc. are outside. The
ground of this difference has to be that “what actual sensation apprehends is an individual”,
while “what knowledge apprehends are universals”, and these are in a sense within the soul. That
is why a man can exercise his knowledge when he wishes but his sensation does not depend
upon himself – a sensible object must be there. A similar statement must be made about our
knowledge of what is sensible on the same ground, that is, the sensible objects are individual and
external [ CITATION Kap421 \p 78 \n \y \t \l 1033 ] .

What has the power of sensation has to be potentially like what the perceived object is
actually. That is, while at the start of the process of its being acted upon, the two interacting
factors have to be dissimilar; but while at the end, the one acted upon has to be assimilated to the
other and has to be identical in quality with it (p. 78).

The term “object of sense” has covered three kinds of objects, the two kinds of which
have been directly perceptible and incidentally perceptible. Of the first two kinds, one consists of
what is perceptible by a single sense and the other of what is perceptible by any and all of the
senses. Each sense has one kind of object which it detects; such objects have been proposed to be
called the “special objects” of this or that sense. “Common sensibles” are movements and
magnitude which are not peculiar to any one sense, but are common to all (p. 79). Of the two
former kind, both are which in their own nature perceptible by sense, the first kind – that of
special objects of the several senses- constitute the objects of senses in the strictest sense of the
form and it is to them that in the nature of things the structure of each several sense is adapted (p.
80).

By a “sense” is meant to possess the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of
things without the matter. By “an organ of sense” is meant that in which such a power is seated.
The sense and its organ have been described to be the same in fact, but their essence, not the
same. What perceives is, of course, a spatial magnitude, but undoubtedly, having the power to
perceive or the sense itself is a magnitude. This has generated the explanation as to why objects
of sense which possess one of the two opposite sensible qualities in a degree largely in excess of
the outer opposite, destroy the organs of sense. If the movement set up by an object is too strong
for the organ, the equilibrium of contrary qualities in the organ, which just is its sensory power,
has been disturbed (p. 80).

Kaplan (1942) has added the explanation as to why plants cannot perceive in spite of
their being affected by tangible objects themselves, for undoubtedly their temperature can be
lowered or raised. The explanation is that they have no mean of contrary qualities, and so no
principle in them capable of taking on the forms of sensible objects without their matter; in the
case of plants the affection is affection by form and matter together (p. 80).

The sense organs’ primary function is to organize changes in the environment called
stimuli. Specialized cells called sensory receptors convert these stimuli into impulses that are
carried by a network of nerves to the spinal cord and then to the brain [ CITATION Bjo101 \p 5 \y \t
\l 1033 ].

The raw material from which our experience of the world around us has been described
to be consisting of nothing but electrical pulses commuting from one part of our nervous system
to another [ CITATION Low66 \p 198 \l 1033 ].

Thomas Hobbes has dealt with the nature of man in the first part of his book Leviathan.
In its first chapter devoted to “Sense” is found the famous statement: ‘There is no conception in
Man’s mind which has not at first totally or in parts, been begotten upon the organs of sense.’
Locke in his Essay concerning Human Understanding, published first in 1690, considered that in
our conscious mind are several types of ‘ideas’ which make up the sum total of our knowledge.
A new-born baby’s mind was likened by Locke to a white sheet of paper devoid of any ideas.
Experience from earliest infancy onward furnishes man with ideas of which the first are derived
from sensation (p. 202).

Each nerve and each small area is dedicated to a particular body part forming side-by-
side region for feeling and movement in the left arm, the right leg, and so on. But the two parallel
parts are not identical. In the motor context, the amount of “processing power” devoted to a body
part varies with the precision of the movements that body part can make. So, for example, the
fingers get more space in the motor cortex than the toes do. In the somatosensory cortex, the
allocation of space depends on the body part’s sensitivity to heat, cold, pressure, vibration,
contact, or pain. Thus, the fingertips and lips get a disproportionate share of the somatosensory
cortex [ CITATION Bry091 \p 7 \y \t \l 1033 ] . Cold-sensing lies in tiny receptors on the membranes
of neuronal projections that i.e. close to the skin’s surface. It’s long been known that touch
neurons specialize. Some only respond to pressure, some only to light touch. Several subsets of
neurons fire an impulse when the ambient temperature rises. Others detect only a decline or
cooling (p. 11).

Sight or vision is one of the most important and frequently used senses [ CITATION
Bjo101 \p 6 \y \t \l 1033 ] . Of all the senses, vision represents the richest source of information.
Because its range is greater than that of any other sense, the eyes at any given moment can put
one in touch with a greater potential volume of information in the environment that can any other
sensory organ. Incidentally, this preeminence of vision is mirrored in the proportion of the
human brain that is devoted to vision [ CITATION Gol89 \p 22 \y \t \l 1033 ] . The position of the
brain that interprets the senses of sight is larger than all other portions of the brain devoted to the
other senses. Several different types of vision receptors in the eyes contribute to the brain’s
ability to process visual information. Eyes contain receptor cells that receive information about
light, shape, and color delivered to the visual cortex area of the brain. Visual nerve impulses
travel quickly from the eyes to the visual cortex directly through the optic nerve, located behind
each eyeball [ CITATION Bjo101 \p 6 \y \t \l 1033 ].

Covering 65 % of the lining of the back of the eye is a thin, light sensitive layer called the
retina. The retina has photosensitive cells that pick up light and color, bipolar cells that convert
light into electrical impulses, and ganglion cells that form nerve fibers to transmit signals to the
brain (p. 7). Nerve fibers from the bundles at the back of the eye come together at the optic disk
or “blindspot” and pass out of the back of the eye to a large nerve called the optic nerve. The left
and right side optic nerves cross behind the eye and meet at an area called the optic chiasma.
Nerve signals travel back to the areas in the brain where vision is processed – the thalamus,
brainstem, and visual cortex (p. 8).

After the sense of sight, the sense of hearing is the most developed sense in the human
anatomy. The ear is comprised of three main parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner
ear. The visible part of the ear is called the external auditory canal. This is a one-inch tube that
tunnels through a bone in the skull known as the temporal bone. This tube is lined with tiny
hairs, oil-producing sebaceous glands, which produce earwax or cerumen. As sound waves move
down the external auditory canal, they come upon the final portion of the outer ear, the temporal
membrane. Beyond the temporal membrane is the middle ear which is made up of the smallest
bones in the body collectively known as the ossicles, and individually known as the malleus,
incus, and stapes, with common names coming from their shape – hammer, anvil, and stirrups (p.
8).

The inner ear, or labyrinth, has three winding chambers deep inside the temporal bone of
the skull. The front part is the cochlea, which is a coiled chamber that holds the organ of Corti
which is composed of sound receptor cells. The vestibule chamber, which contains sensory cells,
related to balance- the utricle and the saccule – connects the cochlea to the final chamber, the
semicircular canals. Nerve signals leave the ear and travel to the brain through the
vestibulocochlea nerve which comprises the cochlear nerve transporting information about
sound, and the vestibular nerve delivering information about balance (p. 9)

Proprioception, or equilibrium balance, is managed by sensors in the ear. Often called the
vestibular system, the semicircular canals and the vestibule region sense movement, speed and
stasis1 the semicircular canals exist at right angles to each other. At the base of each of the canals

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state of being still
lies a widened duct called the ampulla. Inside each ampulla is a jelly-like mass called the cupula,
which contains hair cells that are attached to nerves. As fluid called endolymph circulates in the
canals and vestibule, it stimulates receptor cells. In the vestibule, the utricle and saccule sense
movement and action of the head (p. 10).

Proprioception is the senses of the body’s position in space- and its movement, speed,
and force. Proprioception and touch are more or less the same thing, although proprioception
may be thought of as a particular type of touch, the receptors that initiate impulses of pressure,
vibration, and temperature, i.e. in the skin. The receptors more important for proprioception lie
deep – in the joints, tendons, and muscles. The muscle spindle, found in the body of a muscle, is
one type of proprioceptors; it signals changes in muscle length. The Golgi tendon organ, which
lies in the tendons that attach muscle to bone, provides information about changes in muscle
tension. These receptors send their impulses to the somatosensory cortex of the brain. It lies in
the parietal lobe located at the top of the head. Proprioceptive information also travels to the
cerebellum, where automatic and habitual motions are controlled [ CITATION Bry091 \p 17 \y \t \l
1033 ]

The sense of taste or gustation determines not only the flavor of the food but also
provides an awareness of whether or not something put in the mouth is safe or good to eat. There
are five basic tastes, one of which was not agreed upon in the scientific community until only
recently. These are salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Umami was established as by a
Japanese scientist named Kikunae Ikeda. He wrote about umami being a taste that responds to
glutamate, a chemical found in foods such as bacon, corn, mushrooms, tomatoes, fish, and other
foods. The taste organ is a collection of specialized cells called taste buds. There are
approximately 10,000 taste buds found on the top of the tongue, and more found in the throat,
soft palate <which is a soft tissue found at the back of the roof of the mouth>, and the epiglottis
<which is the flap of cartilage at the base of the tongue.> Each taste bud bears between 50 to 150
sensory taste receptors. A nerve called the facial nerve carries sensory information from the taste
receptors in the front of the tongue. The glassopharyngeal nerve carries information from the rear
of the tongue. A third nerve, called the vagus nerve, carries information from the back of the
mouth. The nerves deliver taste sensations to part of the brainstem, then travel on to the thalamus
and finally arrive in the cerebral cortex of the brain (p. 13).

The human nose can detect thousands of distinctly different odors. The sense of smell
identifies odors in the air around us and assists the sense of taste by enhancing or discouraging
appetite and contributing to the appreciation or the rejection of flavors. It also protects us from
breathing unsafe air ir fumes and stops us from eating anything spoiled or poisonous. The sense
of smell also helps with human memory recall. There is a large cavity located between the roof
of the mouth and the bottom of the skull called the nasal cavity. It is divided into left and right
sections by a piece of cartilage called the nasal septum (p. 13).

The nasal cavity is lined with a membrane that contains mucus-producing cells. On the
uppermost part of the nasal cavity is a layer of tissue called the olfactory epithelium. On one end
of each olfactory cell are large long hairs called cilia. The cilia are coated in mucus and contain
sensory receptors. At the other end of the each olfactory cell are nerve endings called axons
which come together to from the olfactory nerve. The nerve passes through the skull and enters
the end of the olfactory tract, where a pair of olfactory bulbs is beneath the front of the brain.
Inside the olfactory bulbs, nerve cells receive signals and transfer them to parts of the brain (p.
14).

One study [ CITATION Moz69 \l 1033 ] showed that the ability to identify food substances is
severely hampered when odor perception is eliminated. In this study, twenty-one familiar
substances were individually liquefied in a blender and dropped onto a person’s tongue from an
eye dropper; the person’s task was to name the food. For several very familiar substances
including garlic and chocolate, correct identification was not entirely possible without smell.
There is something paradoxical about odor’s contribution to taste: when odor is added to a
substance that is being tested, people do not report that its smell has increased in strength but
rather the taste [ CITATION Mur77 \l 1033 ] In other words, taste and smell blend into a single
experience typically referred to as “taste” [ CITATION Gol89 \p 413 \y \t \l 1033 ] .

The sense of touch inches a wide network of nerve endings and sensory receptor cells.
There are three overall types of receptor cells- visceral cells which are found in internal organs,
somatic which are found in joints and bones, and cutaneous which are found in the skin. The
skin, the largest organ of the body contains most of the sensory receptors for touch [ CITATION
Bjo101 \p 14 \y \t \l 1033 ] . It is itself composed of several layers. The visible top layer of the
skin is called the epidermis and it provides protection for the layers of skin below and also
protects the rest of the body. The second layer is a thick layer containing sweat glands, hair
follicles, oil glands, blood vessels, nerve endings, and touch receptors. There are four basic types
of touch receptors: mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, pain receptors, and proprioceptors. Each
is responsible for recognizing different types of sensation, such as pressure, pain, or temperature
(p. 15).

An estimation of 50 million Americans experience persistent pain, often from backache,

headache, arthritis, or cancer. Like everything else in the brain, pain is a “matter of physics and
chemistry”. The response starts with stimulation of nerve fibers called nociceptors. They lie in
the skin, muscle, and other body tissues. Their impulses carry messages to the thalamus, and
cerebral cortex of the brain where pain signals are processed. Pain signals also pass to other brain
regions such as the rostralventromedial medulla (RVM), where the volume of the pain message
can be turned up or turned down through signals sent from the RVM to the spinal cord. Unlike
the nerve endings that respond to light, touch or pressure nociceptors ordinarily need a strong
stimulus to begin firing. Inflamed or injured tissues, however, release chemicals that make
nociceptors more sensitive so that a weaker stimulus causes them to fire. Unlike many other
kinds of receptors, which quit triggering a signal when stimulated for too long, nociceptors
become increasingly sensitive with continuing or repeated stimulation [ CITATION Bry091 \p 22
\y \t \l 1033 ].

Nine out of ten people say that they preferred using their right hand. Since the left brain
controls the right hand, it’s a valid conclusion that the left hemisphere is more or less in charge
of most skilled movements. The right motor cortex actively controls movements of the left hand
but that the left motor cortex is active in movements of both hands. The left hemisphere sends
messages to the left hand by way of the right hemisphere via the corpus callosum 2 (p. 18). Since
nerves from the left and right sides of the body cross when they enter your brain, your left brain
controls your right hand and vice versa (p. 18).

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the stalk of brain fibers that connects the brain’s two halves
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