24 WAYS OF SENSING THE WORLD
When we think of nerves often we think of motor nerves going to muscles and the nerves in the brain. Whereas the majority of nerves are sensory - giving us the vast, valuable information about what is going on inside and around us. Look at this stunning list of sensory nerves and their functions:
1. Ophthalmoception (Eyes) Sight or visual perception
2. Audioception (Ears) Hearing or auditory sensations
3. Gustaoception (Tongue) Sense of taste
4. Olfacoception or Olfacception (Nose) Sense of smell
5. Tactioception (Skin)
Four Internal Human Senses
6. Thermoception (Skin) Lack or increase of heat (temperature)
7. Proprioception (Body Parts) Awareness of body parts without visual input
8. Nociception (Whole Body) Sensation of pain in the body (skin, body organs, etc.)
9. Equilibrioception (Whole Body) Sense of balance (determined by ear fluid)
Additional Human Senses
10. Kinesthetic Sense (Whole Body) Sense of acceleration
11. Tactility (Mostly the Skin) Perception of pressure
12. Chemoreception (Blood and Brain) Sensation of hunger, thirst, vomiting and suffocation
13. Stretch Reception (Muscles, Joint and Skin) Sense of gag reflex, gas distension, excretion, etc.
14. Cutaneous Reception (Skin) Sense of skin vasodilation (like flushed skin)
15. Synaesthesia (Body Parts) Combination of senses (like smiling at someone’s voice)
16. Chronoception – how we sense the passing of time.
EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION*
17. Sixth Sense (Small Brain) Sense of intuition (gut feeling)
18. Premonition (Paranormal) Subconscious sense of future events (usually danger)
19. Telepathy (Paranormal) Auditory perception of a person’s (near or far) thoughts
20. Precognition (Paranormal) Visual perception of future events
21. Clairvoyance (Paranormal) Visual perception of invisible objects or events
22. Clairaudience (Paranormal) Auditory perception of the invisible
23 Electroception – the ability to feel electrical fields around us. Sharks can detect electrical fields in their environment, including those emitted by prey it cannot necessarily see.
24. Magnetoreception – several mammals, such as bats, can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use it to navigate.