Briana Clift PSY 1100 News Article 2 2.4.14 http://dana.org/News/ !r"Si#th"Sense $YP%&'(N) *http://dana.org/News/ !

r"Si#th"Sense"+ "and"Se,enth"and"%ighth"""/*"+"and"Se,enth"and"%ighth"""

Our Sixth Sense and Seventh and Eighth

-e ha,e .een ta!ght that we ha,e / 0ain senses1 sight1 s0ell1 taste1 hearing1 and to!ch .!t that is the gro!ping of all the senses we act!all2 ha,e. 3o!ch e#a0ple is a catch all ter0. 3o!ching has 0an2 sensations li4e heat1 ,i.rations1 press!re1 pain1 press!re and itch. (t !se to .e tho!ght that o!r ner,es for to!ch co,ered all of these .!t now research is showing that there are separate ner,es for each of these. A specific e#a0ple is itch. 3he ner,e ends that ca!se itching connect to the spine. (n an e#peri0ent with 0ice1 the2 fo!nd that when these ner,e5ends are deleted the 0ice still responded to nor0al sti0!li .!t no longer had a reaction to itching. 3aste also has 0!ltiple receptors that disting!ish .etween so!r1 sweet1 salt and .itterness. 3hese ne!rons are act!all2 painf!l5heat5sensing. (n a st!d2 the2 fo!nd that the .!662 feeling of a pepper on the tong!e was si0ilar to that of an o.7ect ,i.rating at /0 $6. $earing is !sed for so!nd .!t also gi,es !s .alance1 sense of gra,it2 and head positioning. A 0ore !nco00on sense is that of ti0e. A st!d2 at the 8ni,ersit2 of California in 9artin Pa!l!s:s la.orator2 fo!nd that ti0e5sense feels li4e the collecting of sensor2 e#perience .2 the ins!la. Pa!l!s descri.es ins!la as1 ;the sense of ti0e see0s to .e an integrated sense of what:s happening to !s. (f we had no e#perience of the inside or o!tside of o!r .odies1 we wo!ld not ha,e this sense of ti0e.< ( find it interesting that e,en ti0e is a sense of o!r .odies that we ha,e o,erloo4ed.

I think that looking into our bodies this specifically is amazing. The thought that we have

a sense of time and yet it never occurred to classify it with taste, touch, sound, hearing, and smell is astonishing. Whether that is because of overlooking it or just to keep our senses generalized so they are more easily understood but the work that these researchers are doing is spectacular to me. I would have never realized that itch has its own nerve-ends. I believe that this work has a great effect on making others think deeper into every aspect of our bodies. There are so many things that we don t fully understand about ourselves and the work that scientist do is e!citing. To think that there is still so much to be uncovered and e!plored and it isn t all overly complicated, it is as simple as e!perimenting on our senses.