Senses: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	sensory reception • sense perception • sensory system

Photos and Videos

tarsier; night vision

Diagram showing unpolarized light as intersecting waves approaching a circular polarizing filter. After passing through the filter, only light waves aligned with the filter's orientation emerge as polarized light, with reduced intensity.

Diagram of the human ear showing how sound waves travel through the outer ear and auditory canal to the tympanic membrane, causing vibrations in the ossicles, and then through the middle and inner ear, including the cochlea. Color-coded sections highlight the outer ear in orange, middle ear in pink, and inner ear in blue.

Diagram showing how the maculae in the inner ear respond to gravity for balance. One panel illustrates upright hair cells when the head is upright, and another shows tilted hair cells when the head bends forward, helping maintain static equilibrium.

statocyst gravity sensors

lateral line system

Diagram of the human vestibular system showing the membranous labyrinth with labeled structures for balance: the cristae in the semicircular ducts and the maculae in the utricle and saccule. Insets detail the crista with hair cells and cupula, and the macula with hair cells, otolithic membrane, and supporting structures.

Circumvallate papillae

Illustrations of a catfish using whiskers to feel, a grasshopper with an ear for hearing, a shark detecting muscle movement with electroreceptors, and a snake sensing heat with specialized sensors.

Do Different Parts of the Tongue Taste Different Flavors?

How do blind people perceive the world?

How do color and scent affect taste?

Understand the concept of synesthesia and know its advantages

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Topics

human ear eye olfactory system sensory neuron taste bud perception Physiology living things Brain cross-modal plasticity Metabolism death coloration Sex sleep Biological development aging Excretion mimicry nutrition

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Key People

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Johannes Müller

German physiologist

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C.I. Lewis

American philosopher and logician

Donald Redfield Griffin

Donald Redfield Griffin

American biophysicist

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David Hunter Hubel

American biologist