The Se nse s

If you had to give up one of

your senses, which one would
you choose and why?
 01
Introduction
What are the senses?
INTRODUCTION
You may have noticed that food
seems flavorless when you have a
cold. If you haven’t, try holding your
nose the next time you eat. It will have
a similar effect. Your sense of taste is
less sensitive when your nose is
stuffed up because your smell and
taste senses are closely related. Both
the nose, which senses odors, and the
tongue, which senses flavors, have
chemoreceptors. These receptors
detect molecules that are dissolved in
liquid.
 02
SMELL
How does the sense of smell
work?
SMELL

In the process of smelling, molecules

of airborne chemicals enter the nose.
These chemicals dissolve in mucus in
the nose, and are detected by
olfactory cells, generating impulses.
The olfactory nerve takes these
impulses to the brain.
 CONTINUATION
Odorants (odor molecules) enter the nose and
dissolve in the mucosa at the rear of the nasal
cavity, the olfactory epithelium. The olfactory
epithelium is a collection of specialized
olfactory receptors in the rear of the nasal
cavity.

When an olfactory receptor, which is a dendrite

of a specialized neuron, attaches to chemicals
inhaled from the environment, it responds by
sending impulses straight to the brain's
olfactory bulb.
 SMELL & EMOTIONS
The olfactory bulb also has a
direct connection to the limbic
system, which controls
emotion.
This is why an odor may elicit
sensations of terror or desire
almost instantly, even before
you're completely aware of
what you're smelling.
Individuals release airborne
compounds that provoke a
physiological reaction in other
members of the same species
via the olfactory system.
Scents have an unrivaled ability
to trigger rich, emotionally
charged memories as well as
complex mental emotions like
nostalgia and desire because of a
network of linkages with other
sections of the brain.
 03
TASTE
How does the sense of taste work?
TASTE

The gustatory system, sometimes known as the sense of

taste, is a sensory system that is involved in flavor
perception. Taste is the sensation that occurs when a
substance in the mouth combines chemically with taste
receptor cells on taste buds in the oral cavity, most often
on the tongue. The sense of taste is one of our basic
senses. It helps us in evaluating food and drinks so we
can determine what’s safe to eat and in order to prepare
our bodies to digest food.
Humans can recognize several types of tastes. Each taste has an evolutionary purpose,
such as identifying spoiled foods or toxic substances.
SWEET BITTER
Sweetness is often described as the Bitter is the most sensitive of the five tastes. A
pleasure taste, signaling the presence of large number of bitter compounds are known to
sugar, which is a core source of energy be toxic, which is why many perceive bitter
flavors to be unpleasant. Hundreds of substances,
and hence, desirable to the human body.
mostly found in plants, taste bitter. However, a
It is no wonder that this is a taste that
little bitterness is sometimes liked, such as the
even babies gravitate to. bitterness found in coffee. Our ancestors used this
taste to identify poison and toxic foods.
Our primary types of
taste include:
SOUR SALTY
Sourness is a taste that detects acidity. These The simplest taste receptor in the mouth is the
taste buds detect hydrogen ions from organic sodium chloride receptor .Saltiness is usually caused
acids found in foods. The mouth puckering by table salt, or sodium chloride, that’s added to food. It
sensation is common in citric fruits such as can also be caused by mineral salts. Sodium is essential for
lemons and oranges, as well as some leafy electrolyte, fluid balance, and the human diet. So, it’s
greens. The sour taste can also be obtained believed we can taste saltiness to make sure we get enough
from foods soured through fermentation. sodium.
UMAMI

Umami is an appetitive taste, sometimes described

as savory or meaty. It is the most recently
identified and accepted of the basic tastes. In the
early part of the 20th century, a Japanese chemist
named Kikunae Ikeda attempted to identify this
taste common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and
meat. But, not one of the four well-known tastes
could describe it adequately. What he pinpointed
was the presence of glutamic acid, which he
renamed “umami”, Japanese for “good flavor”.
How exactly does the sense of taste
work?
https://youtu.be/9H5fcI7legE
Taste and smell Both taste and smell are linked through the human

working together
body’s chemosensation, its chemical sensing system.
The human body’s chemical sensing system includes
the mouth and nose as well as the eyes and throat. In
all of these areas, thousands of free nerve endings
identify sensations such as taste. It is also through
chemosensation that taste and smell actually work
together.

A person might remember as a child holding their

nose closed while they ate in an effort to chew and
swallow a taste they did not like. The child found this
method of ingesting the undesirable food successful
because taste and smell work together to bring a
human the full sensation of flavor. When a human
chews their food, they actually push air through the
nasal passages without realizing it. The result is
smelling the food alongside tasting it for an even
greater ability to process flavor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NFTa
9kTVRU&ab_channel=TED
 04
TOUCH
How does the sense of touch
work?
Touch, Temperature, and Pain

While your other four senses (sight, smell, hearing and taste)
are found only in specific parts of your body, your sense of
touch is all over. This is because it is located in the bottom
layer of your skin, which is called the dermis, so wherever you
have skin you can experience touch. The dermis is packed with
over 5 million tiny nerve endings that together form the
somatosensory system. This system is responsible for all the
sensations you feel, such as cold, hot, smooth, rough,
pressure, tickle, itching, pain and vibrations, among others.
 Why do you think it’s
important to have many
pain receptors in our
bodies?
 You may be thinking that it would be
a good thing to be unable to feel
pain. But this would actually be very
dangerous. Imagine tripping, falling
down, and breaking your arm due to
the forces between your arm and the
ground. If you can’t feel pain, you
might not know you were seriously
hurt. You might go about your day
causing even more damage to your
arm. People who can’t feel pain have
a very rare condition called
congenital analgesia. These people
must be very careful not to hurt
themselves.
Your skin contains receptors that sense touch,
temperature, and pain. Touch is sensed by
mechanoreceptors that detect pressure,
movement, and tension. The skin has two general
types of mechanoreceptors. Mechanoreceptors
that detect gentle touch are located in the upper
layer of the skin. Some of these are wrapped
around hair follicles. These receptors help you feel
when these hairs move, such as when a small fly
lands on your arm. Mechanoreceptors that
recognize heavy pressure are found deeper within
the skin, as you can see in FIGURE 3.4.
Temperature and pain are sensed by
thermoreceptors and pain receptors,
respectively. Thermoreceptors detect heat and
cold. Pain receptors detect chemicals that are
released by damaged cells. Some pain receptors
detect sharp pains, such as the pain you would
feel by stepping on a nail. Other pain receptors
sense blunt or throbbing pain, such as that caused
by a bruise.
1. How do your sensory organs work with your brain to help you
perceive the world around you?

2. What kinds of receptors are hair cells, rod cells, and cone cells, and
to which of your senses do these cells contribute?

3. Why do you think that you can perceive some sounds as loud and others
as very soft?

4. In the human eye, there are 20 rod cells for every 1 cone cell. How
would your vision be different if you had 5 rod cells for every 20 cone cells?