HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE DAILY LIVING THROUGH

OUR SENSES?

The Senses

There are a myriad of ways our everyday living is filtered through

our senses.

The Sensing Brain• It’s a warm breezy summer evening, and a group of

excited youngsters are feeling a salt scented ocean wind drift onshore from the brightly lit outfield down to their seats behind home plate. The crackle of the public address system grabs their attention as the announcer goes through the names in the starting lineups. As the last name is announced, music pipes in and the crowd rises for the national anthem. As soon as the last notes drift away the sky is lit in a rainbow of color as fireworks soar skyward. The noise from the sky continues and the enthusiasm dampens as rain drops fall from a passing summer thunderstorm. The tasty ballpark franks are soon soaked and everyone is scurrying to avoid the sudden drenching.

• We often assume that these images, sensations and sightings happen automatically. Quite the contrary, each is the result of the intricate, delicate and unique process in our brains whereby signals are instantly transmitted, processed, identified, analyzed and interpreted.

• All our knowledge about the world is the result of sensory experiences and interpretations.

• Each sensory receptor has a specific area to correspond with in the brain. Each area complements the others to form our life experiences.

SEEING

• The eyes are the camera to the soul. They see, observe, process and store. Visions that happen while we are awake sometimes seem visible while sleeping, like dreams.

We recognize lines, colors, patterns, and shapes

HEARING

• The ears process the sounds of the world. The results can calm us, like good music, or warn us of danger.

We hear high-pitched, low-pitched, loud, or soft.

FEELING

• The body is equipped with hundreds of thousands of tiny sensors. They show us how to react to external stimuli. Processing that data tells us what to wear, to avoid extreme temperatures and allow us to live comfortably.

We feel pain, pressure, texture and temperature.

SMELLING• Our olfactory cells

separate and distinguish various aromas, in excess of 20,000. They range from sweet and pleasing to foul and offensive. The processing of these experiences interacts with previous matters in our memory function.

Putrid, spicy, sweet, and stinky, these are just a few odors we can identify

TASTING• The tasting process

begins the instant a flavor reaches the tongue. It passes then to the roof of the mouth. Thousands of minute taste buds encounter, sort and process this information, enabling us to determine flavor and pleasure.

We can taste sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or savory flavors.

digital resources

• American Museum of Natural History

• http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/brain/index.php

• pbs teachers

• http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

• Amnh ology

• http://www.amnh.org/ology/brain#