Human feelings that many are not aware of

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. These are the generally accepted five senses that most people have. Without them, we would have no music, no painting, no culinary delights. But if you discard the classic "five", then you may find that these are not all of our feelings. The human body has many other senses that constantly inform us about the state inside and outside our body. They report hunger or carbon dioxide detection and tell us where our hands and feet are. They will not help us see the sunset, smell the roses, or enjoy listening to our favorite songs. But without this set of core senses working, so to speak, in the background, we probably wouldn't even survive.

Why do we feel hands and feet

If you reach out to scratch your head, pull your ear, or touch your nose, you will likely hit your target without even looking at it. This is all thanks to proprioception, which tells us exactly where in space our limbs are located and how to control them without looking at them. It is this feeling that allows us to walk with our heads up, hit the ball while looking at the goal, and steer the steering wheel while looking at the road.

Proprioception - the sensation of the position of the limbs in space, is a muscular sensation.

But where does this sensation come from? It's all about tiny receptors called proprioceptors that are found in our joints, muscles, and tendons. They determine how much stress and strain our limbs are experiencing and constantly send this information to our brain. Based on these statistics, our brains can differentiate where our limbs are in relation to our environment and the rest of our body.

This is an important part of coordinating our movements - imagine that you have to keep your eyes on your feet every time you want to go somewhere. The horror after all!

Proprioception is not the only sense that helps us get around. Another key player here is our sense of balance or balance. It allows us to stand, walk and move without toppling over.

Our sense of balance depends on the vestibular system (inner ear). In the inner ear, fluid flows between three tortuous channels. When we move our head up and down, or turn it left or right, this fluid flows into one of three channels, each of which determines the direction.

This fluid helps the brain calculate the position, orientation, and movement of your head. Along with data from the visual and proprioceptive systems, the brain uses this information to send messages to our muscles, telling them how to stay upright and distribute our weight evenly.

The causes of hunger

We also have internal senses that report on the state of the body. One example is our feeling of hunger.

When we are short on food, our stomach starts producing a hormone called ghrelin. This hormone travels to an area of the brain called the hypothalamus, where it activates neurons that stimulate hunger.

The longer we go without food, the more ghrelin levels rise. However, as soon as we eat a tasty meal, this level drops again, and hormones like insulin and leptin come into action, telling us that we have already eaten enough.

Carbon dioxide in the body

Other senses tell us when the concentration of certain substances is too high or low in the body. Our indoor carbon dioxide detector is a good example of this.

We get rid of CO2 by exhaling it, so things like over-breathing during exercise can cause carbon dioxide levels to drop too low. When this happens, we feel dizzy, confused, and begin to experience a rapid heartbeat.

Conversely, during anxiety attacks, when we find it difficult to breathe, there is a sharp jump in CO2 levels. In this case, we begin to feel sleepy, disorientated, and often experience headaches.

In both of these scenarios, special cells called chemoreceptors detect and respond to high and low levels of chemicals in the blood, and then send signals to the brain. They tell our body to either increase breathing and get rid of excess CO2, or slow it down so as not to lose too much carbon dioxide.

Human sensation of the magnetic field

While hunger and balance are undeniable components of our body, there is another feeling that is much more controversial. Some researchers believe that humans can also sense magnetic fields.

For many years, scientists believed that magnetoreception, the ability to detect magnetic fields, only existed in migratory birds, fish, and a few other animals. However, in March 2019, a group of researchers published an article on human magnetoreception.

In their study, they placed participants in a chamber surrounded by a small artificial magnetic field. They then watched with an EEG machine to see how their brains would react.

They ended up seeing participants' brain activity that resembled our responses to other senses, such as sight and sound.

This means that our brain reacts in some way to magnetic fields, but what exactly this means is unclear. While researchers are confident that this is the first step towards detecting magnetoreception in humans, others are unsure. And since this study came out relatively recently, no one has yet had the opportunity to replicate its results.

In the meantime, we can take the time to appreciate all of our known feelings, not just the five most famous ones. Because if they didn't all work together, we might not be as happy, healthy and, most importantly, living people that we are today.