The senses in perspective

Louw Feenstra, Johannes Borgstein

Resumen


In this paper we explore the similarities and dissimilarities between the various human senses and those of a variety of animals and even plants. To the original five senses a number of “sixth senses” have been aggregated; the sense of equilibrium, the vomeronasal organ and, according to some, the immune system and even language. The cells themselves respond to an amplitude of external stimuli, and science has come to view ‘perception’ as any system used to acquire knowledge. We might define a sense as: the assembly of a sensor that transduces incoming energy into another form, collected by some part of the central nervous system that transports it and feeds it in an altered state into some part of the brain that is able to ‘recognize’ this. Senses do not function in isolation, but the ‘sensors’ or ‘receptors’ are connected to a system of (re)action, with which it forms one unitary system making some meaningful activity possible.

 

Key words: Senses, sense-organs, perception, knowledge system, reaction system, stimulus, transduction.

 


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Referencias


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