Senses

A sense is a physiological capacity of organisms that provides data for perception.  Perception is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.  It is also your view on external events or your belief about something regardless of whether its true or correct as seen by another human.

The nervous system has a specific sensory system, and a sense organ, or sensor, dedicated to most senses. There is no firm agreement as to the number of senses because of differing definitions of what constitutes a sense.

The 5 basic senses are considered External since they use parts outside of the body, and extroceptive senses are the body’s physical external balance and feeling.  It does not breakdown the senses to provide an alternative to the pain (aka. nocicense)  sense and it is not a regular sense used daily for all people whereas the 5 External Senses are.  Perception of Deception is not sensed by an organ, other than the brain to perceive information and decipher fact from fiction or real from fake.

*I added deception to the list of senses.  The table should also include paranoia and extra-sensory perception.

Perception not based on a specific sensory organ

Time (Chronoception), Sense of Agency (or controlled external decision making), Familiarity and Recollection

Not all senses are constantly active and in use and the perception depends upon the stimuli.  Sensations are sent to our brains to help make sense of what is going on to form our perception.  They have various amounts of stimuli, creating different perceptions depending upon the properties of the stimuli, for example, a delicious smelling dinner when hungry cannot be compared or invoke the same feelings, sensations, and perceptions as 500 Rotten Dead Bodies.  Environmental Factors and Time plays an important role in sensations and perceptions; the longer one is exposed to sights and sounds that cause pain, may experience long term damage to their ears, and if the sound content is negative, causing discomfort, long term exposure could cause severe psychological damage in the areas of self-esteem, beliefs, and may even cause them to do things they wouldn’t normally do.

Stimuli that creates certain sensations do not stay the same forever and not all types of stimuli that affects the sensations are committed to memory.  One can exhaust themselves with one type of music and no longer find pleasure in it, or become more aware of certain elements and sensations over time.  The senses are not the same for every person, that is why the senses are linked to perception; each person has their own knowledge base, experiences, that helps to manage their perceptions and responses to the stimuli.  Some have more sense than others, in that some have precognitive/predictive abilities and awareness that others don’t, based upon experience or external influence.  Extra-sensory perception is not widely accepted, simply due to the lack of evidence and believability.

Senses are closely tied to memories, including sight, sound, smell, taste, but not all mediums that affect your senses (or input sources) are committed to the memory the same way.  For example, one might have an excellent memory when it comes to focused work, but not be able to remember anniversaries or movie titles.  The reason for this is unknown, but may have to do with space, time, conscious awareness, decision making, and pain or pleasure. Time is an important factor in actions and reactions, controlled or uncontrolled movements, especially when dealing with the Criminal Mind, determining motivation, and whether or not the criminal or person thought through his/her actions based on certain stimuli.  Smells and sights do not last in the memory forever, but a traumatic childhood event may or may not, depending upon how you and your brain chose to resolve it.

The senses send information to your brain, where it may attempt to tie it to the memory, access the memory for familiarity, or create a new memory.  They also help it to make decisions to take action to achieve or avoid pleasure or pain.  Each sense is usually associated with something already known, such as want, need, adrenalin, expectation, arousal, fear, shame, and the list goes on.  When senses encounter unknown stimuli, it goes through a decision making process, forming a perception and possibly a memory.  The requirements to make it a lasting memory or a short term memory, is related to pleasure or pain, but the brains decision of either or is based on an unknown factor, perhaps an automatic decision to remember it.

Example:
I loved the smell of that fragrance, I’ll remember it forever, especially when my ex-husband wore it and now I get sick to my stomach when I smell it.

So, the memory was tied to emotions and although the sense stayed the same, the emotions did not because of the level of pleasure and pain associated with the memory.  If the subject had more pleasurable memories than painful ones, they are more likely to still enjoy the fragrance and may find happiness in their memories.  The sight of the fragrance bottle may not evoke these feelings and emotions; it’s dependent upon their knowledge and past feelings associated with it.