Talk:Sense/Archive 1

message: unify the articles "Sense" & "Sensory system"?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lenangreal (talk • contribs) 19:08, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about 

message: Emotion
How come this isn't included? It's such a basic and proven sense, it's retarded that no one has posted it.    —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.54.118.125 (talk) 00:10, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Like pain, thirst is a motivational attention grabber that causes the brain to give at least some attention and action to finding and drinking water.  What is being sensed is not motivation or attention, but rather an internal sense of blood pressure that drops as we lose water through sweat or urine.  There are thousands of such internal chemical senses that detect the amount of sugar in the blood, the acid/alkaline balance (ph) of the blood, the amount of thyroid hormone (TSH) in the blood, the amount of calcium in the blood, the amount of leukotrienes in the blood,  etc.  It is not practical to describe them all in an article on the senses. Greensburger (talk) 05:04, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Unsorted text

message: From my diving lessons I remember there is some CO2 sensor in your spine (neck) that forces you to take a breath when the CO2 level in your lungs gets too high. Something to add under internal sensors. Ramonw (talk) 09:09, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Breathing

message: Some animals can detect ultraviolet light. This should be included in this article. This is from the current Wikipedia article "Ultraviolet": "Some animals, including birds, reptiles, and insects such as bees, can see into the near ultraviolet. Many fruits, flowers, and seeds stand out more strongly from the background in ultraviolet wavelengths as compared to human color vision. Scorpions glow or take on a yellow to green color under UV illumination. Many birds have patterns in their plumage that are invisible at usual wavelengths but observable in ultraviolet, and the urine and other secretions of some animals, including dogs, cats, and human beings, is much easier to spot with ultraviolet.
Many insects use the ultraviolet wavelength emissions from celestial objects as references for flight navigation."
71.249.106.22 (talk) 03:28, 4 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I thought of this for a moment as well, but it still seems to fall under the category of sense of sight. Detection of ultraviolet light by itself doesn't seem to qualify as a separate sense. --76.30.237.113 (talk) 16:28, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Ultraviolet

message: There is an unreferenced fact in the Magnetoception section claiming evidence for this sense in humans. The citation needed tag has been there since March 2008 so I shall remove it now. 124.171.189.135 (talk) 14:02, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, you never heard of magnetic induction, right? In fact you can feel magnetic fields when they induct electric currents into your body. But they need to be alternating magnetic fields. However we can also feel direct current, try to connect yourself with a 20V battery and you know what I mean... --178.197.229.5 (talk) 01:51, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Magnetoception

message: Hi newbie here.  Just wondering about the ability to sense humidity? Sorry if I did this wrong.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.84.56 (talk) 05:13, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Humidity is just a quality of the sense of touch. There exist thousands of other qualities...like you can see thousands of different colors. --178.197.229.5 (talk) 01:54, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Humidity

message: There seems to be some particularly lame vandalism on the page, particularly here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense#Vision  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.233.79.169 (talk) 23:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Vandalism

message: Hi.
What about sense as in 5. Definition of 
http://www.openmathtext.org/lecture_notes/vector_calculus_book4.pdf ? Tadeusz Malinowski 08:50, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Sense of vector

message: Should the ability to tell from which direction the sound is coming not be included in this section? After all depth perception, which I suppose is the equivilant for sight is included in that section. --91.109.5.176 (talk) 18:42, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hearing 

message: "In contrast, an octopus has no or limited proprioception due to the complicated shapes their tentacles can form."
Is there any (scientific) evidence to support this?
--193.63.48.253 12:14, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Octopi 

message: Should ESP be listed here?
If it's "extra-sensory", then it's by definition not one of the senses, isn't it?  Even if it really existed, it would be listed somewhere else.  I'd list it as a belief of its own, just like religions, and maybe with a link from pseudoscience. --Lee Daniel Crocker
I specifically wrote "physiological" senses in the opening sentence, to prevent people from trying to include ESP. It doesn't belong here, as this article defines a sense as having a receptor neuron, and a corresponding interpretive region in the frontal cortex. I think it can be safely said that ESP has neither. - MMGB
It should be mentioned somehow under perception. --LMS
That's a reasonable link, too, depending on how you treat perception.
::I think that ESP should be removed. It is not a sense. --Comaze 23:57, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  ESP? 

message: Should we mention the potential of a "sense of being stared at"?  Research backing it is laid out at morphogenetic field.  It's not widely accepted and we should say that, but it's rare that anyone actually proposes a new sense, so I am inclined to think it should be here.
: A morphogenetic field has yet to survive any rigorous scientific testing, so I don't think it can be seriously entertained here. When a medical textbook accepts the existence of the morphogenetic field, then so should this article. The article is really a generalist overview of a physiology topic. Manning 13:36, August 12, 2005 (UTC)
:: I think this page should include a category for senses that have not yet withstood rigorous scientific testing.  Remember, the policy is NPOV, not SPOV (scientific point of view).  The "sense of being stared at", the ability to see auras, tele-empathy and medical empathy, as well as the "sense of direction" (possibly a poorly developed form of electroception -- after all, electroception had to come from somewhere and it's a bit naive to think that, while the platypus has a highly developed sense of electroception, as do many birds -- invluding non-migratory ones (just try holding a magnet up to a cockateil or a parakeet and watch its reaction!), and many fish as well, that no other animal in the world has even a rudimentary version of this sense.  Didn't a previous version of this page once state that humans had the same minerals in the brain that exist in specialized organs of animals with a dictinctly developed sense of electroception, and that this is why we humans can sometimes "feel" where north is (or soutn, in the southen hemisphere)?  Just because humans have no specialized organ for this particular sense, doesn't mean they don't have some vague, undeveloped, and barely perceptible sensation of electromangetism aside from that gathered from other senses (like hairs standing up on end or ears ringing in the presence of electrical fields).  Evolutionarily speaking, some primitive precursor to a full-fledged sense must exist before a sensory organ dedicated to it evolves, and given the sheer variety of animals with electroceptic sensory organs, it seems reasonable to assume that many other animals have such an as-yet-undeveloped precursor to this sense.  This could also be related to the ability to sense auras (interpreting stimuli for which we have no dedicated sensory organ in the form of a sense we actually can process consciously, like vision).
:: In short, there is no reason not to include a section on this page for hypothesized yet scientifically unproven senses.  Like I said:  It's NPOV that counts here, not SPOV.  If substantial numbers of people believe in certain senses, it is not our place to conclude, due to lack of scientific evidence, that they are not actual senses because they do not exist and exclude them from this page.  Rather, it is merely our place to point out that scientific proof for these presumed and hypothesized senses has not yet come forth.  --Corvun 13:59, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  It would be inappropriate to include such a section. The scientific point of view is objective and skeptical, and hence is what must be followed for NPOV. Such a section is not justified by your claim that there is a 'substantial number' of people who believe it. Substantial numbers of people can be wrong anyway. Your own conjecture is also no reason to include this sort of thing. 124.171.189.135 (talk) 13:56, 20 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sense of being stared at 

message: As a common pleb, I have always thought that pain was an extreme manifestation of the other senses, and not as a separate sense. Imagine pressing a spike lightly against your skin. It may not be pain but you can feel it. Press harder, and it becomes pain. There's a grey area of discomfort between the feelings of touch and pain. Similarly with heat and cold, sound, light, balance (motion sickness etc.), even smell and taste (unpleasant tastes/smells such as strong chemicals). The article on Nociception, if I understand it correctly, states that there are specialised pain receptors (separate from those for touch and temperature), which seems to refute my idea. Either way I think it's a common enough (mis)conception that it could do with refutation/support in the main article. --Mintie 23:32, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The pain that comes with pressure is what caused people to think that pain was simply an overload of the touch senses. You can see that it isn't by considering the pain of heartburn, muscle stress, and a rash. Nociception is neurological quite distinct from tactition. A deeper explanation of how pain and touch differ would be useful - I'll put it on my to-do list. Manning 13:38, August 12, 2005 (UTC)
For other senses, the article indicates the stimuli that are sensed, e.g. light, pressure, chemistry, temperature, acceleration.  What stimuli are sensed by pain sensors?   Is pain cognitive/post-sensory or are there unique pain sensors that "fire" only under limit condition (as protection against possible damage)?Cwfv (talk) 00:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

text: Everything about that is in nociception .Viridiflavus (talk) 06:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

text: It seems very strange that pain is regarded as a sense, but not pleasure (or something?) -- Or that the need to defecate is mentioned, but not any sexual sensation. Is that sensation really less distinct from the other senses?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.114.27.182 (talk) 00:29, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pain 

message: "Magnetotactic bacteria build miniature magnets inside themselves and use them to determine their orientation relative to the Earth's magnetic field." What possible reason would a bacteria have for doing this? Is it just a quirk of evolution?  --Mintie 23:32, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bacteria 

message: As a half-serious suggestion, what about more ethereal senses such as the sense of morality or outrage? See http://angryflower.com/sensib.gif for a laugh. Any other thoughts? --Mintie 23:32, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other senses 

message: While nausea can by accompanied by dizzyness (probably part of Equilibrioception) and pain it's quite distinct.
Having to go pee is another, but that doesn't sound too scientific.
  -rm
The sensation of a full bladder (having to pee) is a real sensation but is not necessarily a correct indication that the bladder is full.  After a prostrate operation my doctor gave me medicine that was to "retrain my bladder" into knowing when it was really full versus when it thought it was full. I don't know anything about the mechanism behind that feeling or how the medicine works.  
Perhaps along similar lines, there is a sensation one feels when having to defecate.  If that feeling is ignored for a long enough time, it will be replaced by pain (cramps).
   - btm
The sensation of the relative fullness of the bladder, bowels, or stomach is a real human sensation, corresponding to a real phenomenon: they should be included in the list. Sense is (somewhat) independent of cognition; the conclusions you draw based on what you appear to see or hear or feel may be different than the sensations themselves.
:Either sense of touch or kinetic sensation. Now you can choose. --178.197.229.5 (talk) 02:12, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nausea is also distinct 

message: Why not simply call balance the sense of acceleration? Gravity is accelaration. (see relativity.) All forms of accelartion is sensed with your sense of balance, and nothing more or less.
:Fair comment, but you'll need to discuss it with the physiologists, not us. We just report what the term is, we don't decide. While you are at it, aske them why on earth we needed a word like "gustation". Manning 06:04, August 16, 2005 (UTC)
...Balance a great characteristic. Senses, nerves and capability. The (mind) how do we decide, is it corruption, manipulation or the understanding of what has been modified. The adjustment to our or to the senses do have something to do with understanding. We understand a property by its justification and satisfaction of what is. Is may represent understanding. My first adjustment of knowledge had been pertained to the term [-Thank You-] Here is what I adjusted to. T-o H-elp A-nother N-eeded K-eeper Y-ou O-ughto U-nderstand. The sense of the mind pertaining to feelings and unity may have been extended based on the balance of understanding a trueness by an objective idea. Sense of Control, perhaps.David George DeLancey (talk) 11:45, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Balance 

message: If senses include such things as the statolith and magnetotactic bacteria, shouldn't it also include phototaxis and chemotaxis? in other organisms.  Certainly this can be divided by phylogeny, but if it is a generalized article on the senses, shouldn't we include sections for the detection of, for example, red to far red light ratio in plants?  Phototaxis in birds (the so-called third eye, because of light penetration of the skull? Just out of curiousity.  Thank you.L Hamm 03:15, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Senses and Perception 

message: Hi. I've taken the (bold?) step of deleting this section. I looked carefully at it and couldn't see any information that wasn't included in the "List of Human senses" section, which is generally much better, and properly wikified.82.13.223.11 16:28, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Types of Senses" 

message: The answer is of course "yes", but unfortunately this topic is missing. I have inserted a line in the non human senses. I will add more in due course of time. 08:20, 18 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Can plants sense too? 

message: The following is highly debatable:
 "No life form is without any kind of sensing faculty."
What of amoebas, bacteria, or (also arguable since they're often not thought to be alive) viruses? The sentence also advocates by implication the idea that sense is unrelated to cognition, which it shouldn't do, since "there is no firm agreement amongst neurologists as to exactly how many senses there are, because of differing definitions of a sense."  The article immediately goes on to make the assumption that a sense requires a brain by including brains in the definition in the next paragraph. --Mr. Billion 17:19, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Questionable sentence 

message: There are several articles about above-average human abilities.
Should we list them in the sense article?
--DavidCary 21:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  other above-average abilities 

message: What about human being's inherit sense of their own thoughts? I cant believe ive never seen this discussed in its wholeness, but i believe that its one of the very few things that separates human from the other creatures - self awareness.. which is really just having one's own thoughts re-run through a sensory module (of the brain). this way, conscious is the resulting loop of thought>sense of thought>thought resulting from sense>sense of this thought>etc; and subconscious are the multitude of many thoughts that we are not 'consciously aware' of (not sensed). -Bill
: A worthy topic, but unrelated to this article. This article is about physiological sensory perception - ie, how sensory nerves (external to the brain/CNS) relay information to the brain for processing. Being self-aware ("cogito ergo sum")is a process of abstract thought (which, by definition, means brain functions independent of external stimuli). Manning 01:35, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sense of self 

message: There is a disease, I forget the name, that exists where people 'hear' colors. A while back, the news was showing an autistic girl playing the piano and announcing the colors she was seeing. What is this disease called? It should be mentioned, at least in the links. 207.179.172.220 16:27, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rare Disease 

message: I've removed the bolded sentence from the article:  
:There is no firm agreement among neurologists as to exactly how many senses there are, because of differing definitions of a sense. In general, one can say that a "sense" is a faculty by which outside stimuli are perceived. School children are routinely taught that there are five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste; a classification first devised by Aristotle). There is another highly debatable 6th sense but that is pretty much voodoo and conjecture.
:It is generally agreed that there are at least nine different senses in humans, and a minimum of two more observed in other organisms.
Calling it 'voodoo and conjecture' is definitely POV, and leads to confusion with the sentence that follows -- after all, if there are nine senses, then there must be a sixth! -- Heath 69.174.67.197 00:07, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV/Contradiction edit 

message: If we have 5, or 9, or 23 senses depending on who you ask and their definition, why are not all 23 listed? I think it might be useful to have the senses organized in models. ie. the traditional 5 sense model, and list them. then the updated 9-sense model, and list them. then the fancy 23 sense model and list them. After that, describe them all. Anyone up for it?? ITs certainly not helpful to have a statement that there may be as many as 23 senses in humans, but only see 9 of them listed. Mike.lifeguard 03:05, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There is no formal "23 sense" model as such, and no two neurologists would fully agree on the model. The increase in number occurs when you treat individual receptors as distinct senses. For example, there are at least four distinct touch receptors, each with their own neural pathway and each attuned to slightly different stimuli. So the decision to call this a single sense or individual senses becomes somewhat arbitrary. Manning 15:45, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Number of senses 

message: Should there be a mention that some humans have a slight sense of direction (most likely based on Earth's magnetic field)? I know this exists from personal experience. Even as a child, all my dreams and memories had a direction to them. I actually found it rather shocking when I got older and heard people say they do not have that perception. Yet, I have encountered several other people who DO have a sense of direction in this manner. Sometimes this sense is stronger than other times, but I can generally sense compass direction to within about 30-45 degrees. It's tough to describe the sensation to those who do not feel it, but it can be best described as north feeling like an "up-hill" trip even on level ground. South is "downhill", and east and west are both "level".  Geekrecon 18:19, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sense of Direction 

message: What about animals that react to earthquakes, tsunamis and the like? --Joffeloff 01:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Animals, earthquakes, tsunamis 

message: Ah, somehow smell isn't listed under the classic five.
Thanks.
Screendoorslams 09:58, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Came here to remember the five senses, and you missed one!

message: (This is all theoretical)
What if we were eventually able to reproduce the senses sent to the brain?  If they are electronic signals sent through the nervous system, then they (might ?) be able to be copied or faked by attaching all of a person's connections to the brain to a machine that could reproduce them.  Would this allow this subject to experience whatever we programmed them to experience?  It occured to me that if this could happen, you could enter worlds of fantasy.
Magic10801 00:02, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Simulated Reality

message: This may be too early to include here, but I came across this local group recently: Institute of Advanced Science and Engineering and their information web site at www.senses.info.
--Myscience 01:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Theories 

message: Is Stiener really relevant here - it seems that we have so much more to do before mentioning Stiener.
--Myscience 20:41, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stiener? 

message: I removed the following as I could not find any references to justify them. (And swallowing is not a sense, it is an action.) The epigastric sense may merit reentry, I am not currently certain of the neurological basis of nausea and/or anxiety.
Heading of >> Other internal senses
An internal sense is "any sense that is normally stimulated from within the body."Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sense
* Hunger and thirst are "varieties of sense".Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sense
* epigastric sense is a "weak, sinking or anxious feeling localized in the stomach", as in nausea.Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sensation
* time sense is "the ability to appreciate time intervals, especially in sound and in music".Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sense
* vascular sense is "the sensation felt when there is a change in vascular tone, as in blushing".Dorland's Medical Dictionary 26th edition, under sensation
* gagging is accompanied by a sensation felt when a foreign object such as food enters the windpipe.
* esophageal senses are sensations felt in the throat when swallowing, vomiting, or during acid reflux.
* excretory senses are sensations felt in the urinary bladder or rectum.
Manning 15:53, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have rewritten this section to emphasize neurophysiological receptors linked to the brain. I agree there is no "time receptor" and hence "time sense" does not qualify under the narrow definition of sense.  I agree that the confusion you mentioned needs to be addressed in the introduction, but that is for another edit. Greensburger (talk) 18:47, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I can see you rewrote the section but now it is even more nonsensical, sadly. You have rewritten the items to demonstrate that they are all forms of mechanoreception, which has already been addressed earlier in the article. If we treat these as distinct "senses" then we need to treat the subforms of nociception, vision and gustation as distinct as well, for they are similarly distinguishable as these. I have rewritten the material and re-located it under "touch". Manning (talk) 22:14, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Scratch that - I've reverted to your last edit. My initial attempt to rectify the article ran headlong into the fundamental structural problems here, and there is no quick solution. Believe it or not I wrote the original version of this article way back in 2001, and my bias at the time was clearly neurophysiological, reflecting my own background. However it is apparent to me that we need to broaden the scope to acknowledge the fact that this is a complex area, with differing terminology for the same elements across various scientific disciplines, and that the layperson may use the term in a completely different fashion again. I'm going back to the drawing board for now. Manning (talk) 22:51, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  removed a section  - Internal senses 

message: I know that there is some sense that is a "mental map" of your surroundings, so you can, say, reach around something and grab something else without looking.  If it doesn't belong here, can someone at least tell me the name of what I'm talking about here?--Gaeamil 10:31, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you mean peripheral vision? If not, I would advice you to put your question on the reference desk. Lova Falk 16:37, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mental Map 

message: I think there is a study about which of the senses would be the first to lose its function after death. I can't find a link though. Maybe we can add this information to the article. Leoisiah (talk) 14:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Senses upon death 

message: I am listing my edits of some of the non-sense and lack of, or wrong information.
"The nervous system has a sensory system dedicated to each sense." to "The nervous system has a specific sensory system, or organ, dedicated to each sense."
Because it does.
"However, humans have at least eight different senses (including interoceptive senses), like: thermoception (heat, cold), nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance, gravity), proprioception & kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration). Different senses also exist in other organisms (amongst them: electroreception, echolocation, magnetoception, pressure detection, polarized light detection)."
To:
"However, humans have at least seven, and possibly eight, different senses. They are inclusive of the above with the addition of equilibrioception (balance), thermoception (temperature differences), and in some a weak magnetoception (direction)Magnetic fields and the central nervous system .  
Clinical Neurophysiology , Volume 111 , Issue 11 , Pages 1934 - 1935
A . Voustianiouk.  Different senses also exist in other organisms, for example electroreception."
I removed nociception (pain), proprioception & kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration), and pressure detection because they are sub-catagories of somatoception. I also removed polarized light detection becaused it is a sub-catagory of vision.
I removed "Buddhist and Jewish belief systems attribute the sixth sense to memory or mind." because it has nothing to do with this article.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeeOh (talk • contribs) 03:59, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  A bit messy. 

message: I believe that senses which relate to stimuli coming from one's own body, interoception I believe it is called, should be included, as it seems to have been at some point. The reasoning behind it is that the article seems to define senses as something that "has a specific sensory system, or organ, dedicated to [it]". Proprioception, amongst others, is one that definitely has special receptors and that is processed by some kind of neurological system.
This does bring back the problem of the definition of sense, and I think the article should, as has been mentioned before, try to account for the many "definitions" or categorizations of senses. I.e.: classical, external, internal. It already does so to some extent by making the difference between human senses and non-human ones, but really doesn't do much justice to the different attempts that have been made by different parties to list all senses known. Senses, and how to categorize them, do seem to be a subject of great debate, but an encyclopedia, instead of skipping the discussion altogether, should try to mention the better known views on the subject. It doesn't seem to be the case.
I won't go into this myself as I know nothing about the subject, or anything pertaining to biology really. I do hope to spark a change for the better for this article as it's quite messy, and many links to it are broken, i.e. Interoception.
--Quantum Omega (talk) 00:55, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The paragraphs you refer to were deleted on March 13 2008.  I reverted this vandalism and made minor improvements.  The paragraphs still need work and references.  Greensburger (talk) 04:38, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Proprioception and interoception again

message: Senses evolved progressively one from another (for example, probably photosensitivity evolved from phonosensitivity, etc) in a sort of sense phylogenetic tree, whose presumable root was metabolism. --Faustnh (talk) 21:50, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Just a little theory on sense evolution 

message: Two comments. The following fragment is IMHO poorly worded:
* [...] which is why people see interpreting the image as "sight."
Somebody who knows their stuff could try and improve on it.
Also, if a note is made that color perception may be considered a different sense, there should be a reference to color blindness next to the one on blindness. elpincha (talk) 03:26, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comments on "Sight" section 

message: IMHO, it seems 3 facets of the topic are being described here.
# Sense organs: ears, eyes, nose, brain, skin, mouth, etc
# Sense facilities: sound, b/w sight, colour sight, tactition, temperature, etc
# Sense interpretation: (sight) face recognition, danger recognition, flash light recognition, etc, (sound) familar voice recognition, danger recognition, etc, (smell) relaxing smell, foul smell, etc
The "sense interpretation" section/page would link to neurological pages, to complete the picture
Misc comments:
* Perhaps, b/w sight is separate from colour sight (rods & cones)
* Consider also, feeling low-frequency sound (eg elephant's subsonic call) with body
* Also, sensitivity to strong magnetic field underneath electricity pylons (some people affected more than others)
* Sense of time is really "sense of time duration" rather than an absolute time
SombreGreenbul (talk) 14:45, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Split the document ? 

message: People can also detect electric (touch the electric fence and you feel it, if low voltage its not actually pain, but you feel the pulse's and frequency of pulses, same goes for the static before a big storm.)
and people can also detect altitude, changes in air pressure, The feeling of dry mouth, the shortness of breath, the ear popping. this must be a sense too? right?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.13.162.107 (talk) 14:21, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: "missing?

message: It seems that one's inner sense of somnolence/wakefulness/sleepiness would also be a sense. Somnolence, I suppose could be explained as a diminished prevalence of input from other senses.  That last argument though assumes being tired is orthogonal to being alert.  As far as I know, a sensory deprivation chamber does not make one feel tired, so it seems that a sense of somnolence isn't just a lack of input from other senses.    ~ Justin Ormont (talk) 19:36, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Somnolence/Wakefulness/Sleepiness 

message: There are also many internal sensors in the body that don't register to the consciousness.  My understanding is that some of these travel up the vagus nerve to the brain.  Here's a snippet from vagus nerve:  "Besides output to the various organs in the body the vagus nerve conveys sensory information about the state of the body's organs to the central nervous system. 80-90% of the nerve fibers in the vagus nerve are afferent (sensory) nerves communicating the state of the viscera to the brain."  There are also more distant examples, for instance sensors in the body which don't require interaction with the nervous system like the regulation of blood glucose levels which requires a feedback mechanism.  All feedback mechanisms by definition need input, which is a sensor.  I suppose saying what is a sense and what is not is tied circularly to how one defines a sense.  ~ Justin Ormont (talk) 19:36, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The problem with including non-conscious senses is there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of types of sensors.  There is a blood-temperature sensor in the hypothalamus (brain).  There are sensors in the hypothalamus for sensing the amount of thyroxin, calcium, glucose, etc. etc. in the blood.  There is a sensor for measuring the acid/alkaline (ph) of the blood.  There are sensors for sensing various amino acids in the blood.  Every receptor in every cell could be considered a distinct sensor if the word sensor were expanded to include non-conscious senses.  Generally, each sense must have a corresponding sense organ(s) that must send a signal to a specific area of the brain, so that a conscious decision can be made about how to react to the sensed condition.  By this definition, vision would be several senses: motion, brightness, color, pattern recognition, etc.  To avoid conceptual overload, we simplify senses into categories of related senses.  Greensburger (talk) 03:29, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Non-conscious Senses

message: Mr. Greensburger,I remember we had some 'discussion' about the directionality in the sense of smell linked to the cold receptors on a dogs nose. As a matter of fact for the senses sight and hearing we also have a spatial component, that is not linked to light or sound perception per se, but adds to the sense a spatial representation. I think we should include that part of the senses in a more general paragraph of the article. Adding the spacial representation makes a sense more than merely the detection of a stimulus, and gives an organism an enhanced interaction with its surroundings. With hearing the sense is also intimately connected with phase and time differences, enabling stereo hearing and echolocation. Also the lateral line system is used to make a spatial image of the surroundings, mapping out the vortices present around the fish. Especially with smell the space can be thought of as a network of vortices in the air or water carrying interesting substances leading to a prey ,a mate or anything of interest to the organism. I think I need to find the relevant sources yet, because I don't know if such generalizatons are made in scientific literature, but I can't imagine that no one has approached the senses in this more general way. A more integrative approach to the senses would be meaningful I think.02:15, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Space

message: When I imagine some spatial figure, such as for example a box, and I find that I can make the box larger or smaller or that I can change the shape of the box and in addition I can look at the box from the outside or I can enter the box and see it from the inside and on top of that I notise that I can use all of my senses to interact with the box, I ask myself such questions as; what is the box made of? If it is made of nothing it should not exist, therefore the box in my imagination is made of 'something'. Who am I as the observer? Am I the same as I am in the material space time? I am not if I am not aware of the material world while observing the box in the immaterial world. And yet I am the same observer as I am when I observe similar box in the material space, and I use the same senses. Therefore human senses operate in the immaterial space time but they use material body to communicate with the material space time.KK (78.146.55.46 (talk) 13:01, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: If I understand the paragraph and question, your answer is that you are imagining the box, and if you are only imagining it, then it does not really exist, except in your imagination, in which you can do anything with or to it. Yet if it does not really exist, then your asking "what is the box made of?" is answered by "whatever your imagination decides it's made of" (unless some other imagination that is not your own is somehow involved in its construction or existence). It is not "made of nothing", per se, because it first of all does not exist except in imagination (mind), and is therefore "made of" your imagining. In other words, it "exists" only in your imagination. Therefore, your "therefore" is not a therefore. The box may not be made of "something", unless you can actually manifest with your imagination or mind a box that others can perceive, and they themselves can see it, etc. The rest of your paragraph, starting with "Who am I...?" is apparently based on the former, and as such doesn't follow; and answering those questions cannot really be pursued unless there is a better basis for their initial assumption(s) and any subsequent assumption(s). :) I did think it was interesting, though. A small niggle, I would reword the last sentence as so: "Therefore, [some] human senses operate within the immaterial space-time, but they use [a] material body to interact with the material space-time." The topic of "immaterial senses" is an interesting one, though. Many people can sense when there is some kind of "tension" in a room. I have thought that I have sensed some kind of tension, energy, and/or presence, at times. It is certainly interesting stuff, and worthy of study, etc. Misty MH (talk) 20:03, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Seeing light and hearing sound could also regarded as "immaterial", because light and sonic waves aren't material. Nevertheless they can be measured by instruments. Unlike the neutrino aether, by the way. --178.197.229.5 (talk) 02:19, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Immaterial senses. 

message: <<Some believe in other senses, including temperature (thermoception), kinesthetic sense (proprioception), pain (nociception), balance (equilibrioception) and acceleration (kinesthesioception), however, there is no scientific evidence yet found that proves these aren't just sub-categories of the sense of touch.>>
Is there really any scientific debate that those are separate senses rather than just sub-categories of the sense of touch? 209.86.226.57 (talk) 20:51, 21 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Senses other than the five versus just plain sub-categories on the sense of touch 

message: I have been working on the article Seismic communication and a similar section in the Elephant article.  I believe the Sense article would benefit from a description of this sense, emphasising the elephant 'hearing' through its feet.  I am prepared to write this, but I am wondering where it should be located in the Sense article.  Any thoughts?__DrChrissy (talk) 18:35, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting. Did you write this? Please see my semi-related (new section) just below. Thanks! Misty MH (talk) 19:42, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Seismic communication

message: A distinction is made between senses that animals and/or insects have, and those that are traditionally attributed to Humans. If Humans evolved at all, might it be possible that some of the previous senses from the various forms that Humans were in were at least partially carried over, typically masked by our daily experiences of the typical five senses? Might we, therefore, still possess some ability to sense in some of those ways, abilities that might be developed? It would seem possible, at least in some cases. Since there is still debate over the senses, this would seem an important question, and important for an article related to the various senses. 
What forms do the traditional/typical branches of Human evolution say we once took? How many divergent theories of these branches are there? And what are their short lists of forms they suggest we were in? (other than primate or whatever?) Links? 
Thanks! Misty MH (talk) 19:40, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Senses that animals and/or insects have, dormant or muted within Humans 

message: Inclusion of Conscious awareness of a sense vs. Subconscious response to "senses" is important in understanding how life responds and behaves. I didn't read the whole article to see if this was included, and if so, what it says, but it seems a hugely important part of the topic, or at least related to it. What are the exact "scientific" terms for these? (I also made another New section above this, today. Please see. Thanks.) Misty MH (talk) 20:26, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conscious awareness of a sense vs. Subconscious response to "senses" 

message: Info about the Vedas removed without notice or discussion: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sense&diff=next&oldid=557354449 
If true, it was actually interesting information. 
The word "conspiracy" comes to mind when I see certain information removed that could refer to ancient sources of information that someone might not want to be common knowledge. 
Misty MH (talk) 23:25, 7 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Info about the Vedas removed without notice or discussion 

message: The following paragraph makes no sense.  Yes, touch is sensed directly by the skin which sends the sense data to the brain where it is registered in the primary sensory cortex as occuring on specific areas of skin.  And light is sensed directly by the retina of the eye which also sends sense data to the brain where it is registered in the visual cortex as occuring in specific visual patterns in space. Likewise with other senses which are all indirect.
:Senses can also be classified into those that are detected directly and those that are detected indirectly. Touch is sensed directly by the skin without first involving the brain.  Vision is an indirect sense because it results from photons being sensed by the eye, which first converts the data received into an electrical signal and then sends the electrical signal to the brain.  The brain then transforms the electrical signals into the panorama which we perceive.  Some sensory signals, such as light, can be sensed both directly and indirectly.  For example, high intensity infra-red light can be sensed directly by nerves in the skin.
Greensburger (talk) 05:43, 19 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  A distinction without a difference 

message: Which sense is used when comparing two items' weights, one in each hand? Is that kinesthetic or vestibular? 64.141.84.52 (talk) 17:29, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sense Used During Hefting (Sense of Exertion) 

message: Actually, pain is just nerves firing intensively, and not a sense. The same goes to temperature, the higher the temperature, the more the nerves fire, and over 40 degree it starts to hurt. But it's correct that the kinestetics are a sense on it's own, there exists a nerve degration where patients still have the sense of touch but no kinestetic sense anymore. So basically there are kinestetic sensors and touch-temperature-pain sensors, which gives us 6 senses (I'm not going to argue here why chronoception is no sense, the same as feeling angry or being in love aren't senses but just feelings and thoughts). If we also count the electro-magnetic sense, we would get 7. But that's it, unfortunately we are no snakes or lobster being able to "see" temperature. --178.197.229.5 (talk) 01:44, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Too many senses make no sense...