Page 66 - How It Works - Book Of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, Volume 05-15

Are there

more than five

human senses?

Discover the ten senses you never knew you had

he five classic human senses get all of the enabling you to eat without having to closely As your stomach starts to fill up, stretch
attention, so it might surprise you to know watch what you are doing. In order to stay sensors feed back to the brain, turning down the
Tthat there are several more senses balanced as you reach across the table, sensory signals that are telling you to keep eating, and
working away quietly in the background in your information is quietly gathered by specialist when the part-digested food starts to hit your
body. Take something as simple as sitting down structures in the inner ear. small intestine, sensors trigger the production of
to eat your dinner. All five senses are active, Once the food has reached and is inside your a hormone that flicks the switch to tell you that
taking in the sight and smell of the food on your mouth, one set of sensors provide information you have had enough. The build-up of waste
plate, the taste and feel as you put it into your about the temperature, and another set of products is also closely monitored and long after
mouth, and the sound as you chew. But without specialist nerves called nociceptors quickly alert your meal has been completed, sensors will alert
your other senses, the experience of eating that you as to whether the mouthful is dangerously you when it is time to get rid of anything that is
meal would not be the same. hot or particularly cold. At the same time, the left over.
The act of sitting at the table and getting the blood and the fluid surrounding your central So while the traditional five senses are the
food from the plate to your mouth is a sensory nervous system are monitored to make sure that ones that we rely on most in our conscious
feat. You can’t keep an eye on your limbs all the levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen remain interactions with the world around us, there are
time, so the positions of your joints and the within normal limits, and your breathing rate is several more that work quietly in the background
tension in your muscles is constantly measured, subconsciously adjusted. as we go about our daily lives.

66 How It Works