We as writers are continually reminded
to express the world through the display of senses in our writing; how did it
smell, feel, sound, taste & look. We use these to move us away from telling
and toward showing.
However, what if we were only
scratching the surface of the available ways a person can perceive the world
around them?
Here, I am going to explore the top 10 weird senses humans have.
First a boring bit of medical terminology,
Receptors, are molecules which line
our body that act up if binding with other specific molecules or nerve endings
that respond to various stimuli.
1. Sight—Super Color Sighted
Humans and other mammals perceive
color via three cone cells which each responding to difference bandwidth of
light—trichromats. Some women (sorry guys, it is chromosome thing) though are
born with a fourth variant cone which responds to different wavelengths of
light in the range of the normally invisible spectrum. See this BBC piece on this phenomenon,
here.
2. Sight—Super UV Sight!
Humans cannot perceive UV light
directly because the lens of the eye blocks most light in the wavelength range
of 300–400 nm; shorter wavelengths are blocked by the cornea. Nevertheless,
the photoreceptors of the retina are sensitive to near UV light and people
lacking a lens (a condition known as aphakia) perceive near UV light as whitish
blue or whitish-violet.
3. Hearing—Echo Location
Blind humans have been known to
use echolocation to "see" their environment, but even sighted people
can learn the skill, the human brain normally suppresses echoes, but it perceives
them when a person uses echolocation. Watch this cool video here.
4. Smell—Name the Trillionth Smell
Humans have over 1,000 distinct
olfactory receptors tuned to different odorous molecules and can distinguish
between a trillion odors—are there even a trillion smells?
5. Pain—Doctor Spinal Cord
There are three distinct types of
pain receptors: cutaneous (skin), somatic (bones and joints), and visceral
(body organs), but it is the spinal cord that filters out pain, deciding what
reaches the brain and what stays hidden. The spinal cord also administers natural
painkillers (enkephalins.)
6. Balance—Vertigo is not
about heights (that’s acrophobia)
Equilibrioception is provided by a
fluid filled vestibular area in the inner-ear, and allows you to keep your
balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional
changes. Sometimes, crystals can get into this fluid causing it to move
independently from the body and irritate the surrounding sensors causing
vertigo, which is a horrible deliberating problem—constant head spinning nausea.
7. Proprioception—Close your
eyes and touch your nose
This sense gives you the ability
to tell where your body parts are, relative to other body parts. The
receptor is partially blocked by alcohol, which is why a police office might ask a
drunk person to close their eyes and touch their nose.
8. Magentoreception—I’m flying south this winter
This is the ability to detect
magnetic fields, which is principally useful in providing a sense of direction
when detecting the Earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic bones have been found
in the human nose, specifically the sphenoidal/ethmoid sinuses. Experiments
have shown humans have a tiny sense of magnetic fields.
9. Thermoception—Cold this
winter?
It I put my hand on your back, you
will feel me. If I put an ice cube on your back you will scream and jump. This
is because we have two receptors, one for when temperature is above body
temperature and one for when it is below. We do not have one for the same
temperature—try putting 'body temperature' water on your arm…you will not feel
it.
10. Itch—Get the heart of the problem!
The itch is actually not pain, as
long thought, but a separate receptor, and get this, it is produced by the heart
to monitor blood pressure—double duty!
