The Traditional Five Senses

Traditionally we have five main senses. These are:

Sight or Vision: The ability to see - that is, to detect light waves and interpret them into the objects around us. The organ of vision is the eye.

Smell or Olfaction: The ability to detect and interpret odours. The organ of olfaction is the nose. Smell, along with taste, is a "chemical sense".

Taste or Gustation: The ability to detect and interpret chemical differences in items we put in the mouth, which is the organ of gustation. Taste is the other "chemical sense". Taste and smell combined allow us to detect flavors.

Hearing or Audition: The ability to detect and interpret sound waves. The organ of audition is the ear.

Touch or Somatic Senses: The ability to perceive and interpret temperature, pressure and pain. The main organ of touch is the skin, which is also the largest organ of the human body. However, there are also receptors located throughout the body.

Senses are all controlled by the Nervous System.

The idea of five human senses dates back to Aristotle. 

Additional senses include:

• sense of balance
  
• sense of body movement
  
• sense of time
• sense of direction
• sense of the location of your body parts
  

Find out more about how each sense works:

Sight          Smell        Taste         Hearing        Touch