What Are The Five Senses And What Do They Do

What Are The Five Senses And What Do They Do

Human beings have five senses to sense their environment, interact with other humans and animals, and experience different feelings. Each of our senses plays a fundamental role in our body. Cells react to certain stimuli to transmit information to the parts of our brain that perceive it and convert it into sensations. If you are wondering what the five senses are and what they do, this OneHowTo article will explain.

Steps to follow:
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The sense of sight is the most developed sense in humans, because unlike many animals, we have the ability to detect objects at a long and short distance, as well as seeing with both little or bright light. The organ responsible for vision is the eye, composed of several parts which are capable of capturing light, which then send light to the brain to interpret all the objects that surround us. The brain combines the images from both our eyes into one 3D image. Human beings are able to see and use this sense to guide ourselves to where we want to go.

Some people have far sighted vision, others are short sighted. Far sightedness is a defect of the eye lens which causes the image you see to be formed in the back of the retina, not on it. This causes people to see object that are further away, and closer objects appear more blurred. Short sightedness is simply the opposite. Normally, glasses or eye contacts will fix either of these vision problems. Another vision abnormality that can occur in human vision is colour blindness where a person has difficulty distinguishing colours and is generally hereditary.

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The sense of hearing is another of the five senses. We are able to perceive the sounds around us by hearing through our ears.

Composed by the outer, middle and inner ear, this sense captures the vibrations of our environment and then transmits them via the auditory nerve to our brain that converts them into sound. Being able to hear means being able to interpret speech, thereby understanding and being able to communicate with one another.

Some people have hearing impairments where they are hard of hearing, or completely deaf. The inability to hear or deafness can be hereditary or the result of complications at birth or infections that have damaged the inner ear. Modern medicine has developed cochlear implants for restoring the function of a damaged inner ear. Deaf people also use sign language as a means of manual communication, where they use hand shapes and movement to convey meaning.

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The sense of smell is another of the five senses, through which we perceive smells. The nose is an organ that allows us to smell everything around us through nasal mucous membranes that capture scents and send the information to our brain, which interprets and analyses them, telling us we can smell something. Our brain sends information as to whether a scent seems pleasant to us or not.

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The sense of taste allows us to know that chocolate cake is delicious or a medicine is bitter. Thanks to taste buds located in our tongue, we can perceive sweet, salty, bitter and sour foods, and through that perception (again with the help of the brain) interpret their flavour. So we can say we like or dislike the taste of anything.

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Finally, the sense of touch is the last sense to mention, which we perceive through the largest organ in the entire human body: the skin. Via the sense of touch, we can feel the texture, temperature and state of things we touch. Thanks to this, we know if something is smooth, rough, hot or cold, solid or soft, etc.

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Does that clarify things? The five senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, all very useful for perceiving and interpreting the environment around us.

This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.

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