Dogs have more sensitive senses of smell, hearing, taste, pain and temperature. Cats win in balance, sight, proprioception (I assume) and, of course, sense of entitlement.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Common sense is not on your list.
Nor should it be.
>> ^shuac:
Great talk but we have more than merely five senses, the way we were mistakenly taught as youngsters.
1) sight
2) hearing
3) smell
4) taste
5) touch
6) balance/acceleration
7) temperature
8 ) proprioception (related to touch, provides the brain with the relative positions of parts of the body. this is how you can touch your nose with your eyes closed)
9) pain
10) other internal senses (gag reflex, urinary bladder 'fullness', sensations felt when swallowing, etc)



No comment on the paperprompter?

Common sense is not on your list.

Nor should it be.

>> ^shuac:

Great talk but we have more than merely five senses, the way we were mistakenly taught as youngsters.
1) sight
2) hearing
3) smell
4) taste
5) touch
6) balance/acceleration
7) temperature
8 ) proprioception (related to touch, provides the brain with the relative positions of parts of the body. this is how you can touch your nose with your eyes closed)
9) pain
10) other internal senses (gag reflex, urinary bladder 'fullness', sensations felt when swallowing, etc)

>> ^shuac:

Great talk but we have more than merely five senses, the way we were mistakenly taught as youngsters.
1) sight
2) hearing
3) smell
4) taste
5) touch
6) balance/acceleration
7) temperature
8 ) proprioception (related to touch, provides the brain with the relative positions of parts of the body. this is how you can touch your nose with your eyes closed)
9) pain
10) other internal senses (gag reflex, urinary bladder 'fullness', sensations felt when swallowing, etc)


I saw a Qi episode where they said we have about 21 or 22. Crazy huh...they didn't list them all though so I have no idea.

Great talk but we have more than merely five senses, the way we were mistakenly taught as youngsters.

1) sight
2) hearing
3) smell
4) taste
5) touch
6) balance/acceleration
7) temperature
8 ) proprioception (related to touch, provides the brain with the relative positions of parts of the body. this is how you can touch your nose with your eyes closed)
9) pain
10) other internal senses (gag reflex, urinary bladder 'fullness', sensations felt when swallowing, etc)

>> ^soulmonarch:
One chief characteristic of scientists is that they are never happy with a simple definition when they can make up a more complicated one. Apparently only because adding new words makes one sound smarter.
Essentially, they have subdivided the 'sense of touch' into four smaller groups:
- Nociception (pain)
- Thermoception (temperature)
- Proprioception (kinestics)
- Equilibrioception (balance)


Considering nociception and thermoception forms of touch is somewhat excusable, I suppose. After all, we normally notice something is hot, cold or sharp while touching it. If you don't allow yourself to think about it beyond that, it's easy to conclude they are one and the same, but to think proprioception or equilibrioception are forms of touch shows a distinct lack of understanding of what those senses are and/or how they function.

>> ^soulmonarch:
One chief characteristic of scientists is that they are never happy with a simple definition when they can make up a more complicated one. Apparently only because adding new words makes one sound smarter.
Essentially, they have subdivided the 'sense of touch' into four smaller groups:
- Nociception (pain)
- Thermoception (temperature)
- Proprioception (kinestics)
- Equilibrioception (balance)
I, for one, call that complete bullshit.
All of those are tactile (touch-based) sensations, and each relies upon the others to function correctly. Sub-dividing them into separate categories doesn't give us a deeper understanding about how each of them function, it just gives people more BS to argue about instead of doing REAL work.
But, most importantly, making up new definitions for the sake of simply making up new definitions makes people sound like pompous dicks.
Uh... /rantoff
Sorry.


I assume you understand the sense of touch enough to make such conclusions?

So if we not divide it into those categories, then how do we deal with a person who gets a virus, it fucks his nerves but not completely, leaving him able to: feel temperature, have balance, and feel pain but has no ability to understand the location of his body? do we (assuming scientist do not categorize touch) say he has a touch problem and leave it at such enormously ambiguous terms? or do we (as we should do) analyze his condition and go: hmm only his propioception is affected, less focus on that. or would you rather have the doctors waste time dealing with all the four variables because 'dividing a vague idea of touch' would be pretentious. How is categorization of ideas and things we have not finished to explore a bad idea?

Are you actually saying that just because those 4 things are dependent on each other, we should not bother categorizing them? Hmm what if each of those happen to have different types of receptors and/or types of cells specialized for each of them? Assuming that we can understand the complexity of the human senses by simply treating them as a whole entity free of components is in my opinion quite arrogant, bullshit and pompous.

I'm making these questions out of pure curiosity, because I can't see how what you are saying holds any water.

One chief characteristic of scientists is that they are never happy with a simple definition when they can make up a more complicated one. Apparently only because adding new words makes one sound smarter.

Essentially, they have subdivided the 'sense of touch' into four smaller groups:

- Nociception (pain)
- Thermoception (temperature)
- Proprioception (kinestics)
- Equilibrioception (balance)

I, for one, call that complete bullshit.

All of those are tactile (touch-based) sensations, and each relies upon the others to function correctly. Sub-dividing them into separate categories doesn't give us a deeper understanding about how each of them function, it just gives people more BS to argue about instead of doing REAL work.

But, most importantly, making up new definitions for the sake of simply making up new definitions makes people sound like pompous dicks.

Uh... /rantoff

Sorry.

and let's not forget what an amazing sense it is...
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Man-Who-Lost-His-Body

>> ^xxovercastxx:
Proprioception (the sense of where your body parts are) fades away when those body parts "fall asleep".
Some years ago I was just waking up one morning and had apparently slept with my arm in an odd position. It had gone well past pins and needles and was completely numb, but I hadn't realized this yet. As I went to stretch, my eyes still closed, I was momentarily horrified when what felt like a large, cold, dead fish suddenly landed on my chest.
Getting the blood flowing again really sucked... pins and needles for like an hour.

Proprioception (the sense of where your body parts are) fades away when those body parts "fall asleep".

Some years ago I was just waking up one morning and had apparently slept with my arm in an odd position. It had gone well past pins and needles and was completely numb, but I hadn't realized this yet. As I went to stretch, my eyes still closed, I was momentarily horrified when what felt like a large, cold, dead fish suddenly landed on my chest.

Getting the blood flowing again really sucked... pins and needles for like an hour.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'BBC, Horizon, proprioception, touch, virus, medicine, neurology, perseverance' to 'BBC, Horizon, proprioception, touch, virus, medicine, neurology, perseverance, will' - edited by kronosposeidon

A little background research for those of you interested:

"Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), also known as Amputee Identity Disorder or Apotemnophilia (from Greek αποτέμνειν "to cut off", and φιλία "love of") is the overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or other parts of the body. Sometimes its sufferers take it upon themselves to amputate their own limbs and/or penis. Although it most commonly refers to people who wish to amputate limbs, the term BIID, or 'wannabe' also applies to those who wish to alter their bodily integrity." (Wikipedia)

BIID seems to be considered somewhat of an extreme case of the emotional needs characterized for hypochondria/Munchausen's combined in part with body dysmorphia, with sufferers wishing for a different body or for the attention and care that they connect with being an amputee. An interesting theory is that BIID is caused by a problem with proprioception, making sufferers feel that they are somehow incomplete or "wrong".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Identity_Integrity_Disorder
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Health/story?id=1806125&page=1
http://www.biid.org/
http://www.slate.com/id/2085402/
http://www.amputee-online.com/amputee/wannabee.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200012/madness - (Registration necessary, sorry, use bugmenot.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_dysmorphic_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception


I don't have the time to think this out completely, but my initial reaction is that this is a horrible thing, and should be prevented whenever possible. I just don't see how allowing people to cripple themselves could possibly be looked on as proper or even just acceptable by our society.

Perhaps part of my reaction is due to the fact that I know several amputees, all of whom would pay mindblowing prices (not merely monetary, mind you, emotional and relationship-wise) for a chance to regain the use of their missing limb.

Ugh. I'm going to go vomit.