Sensation facts for kids

A sensation is how your body feels things. It's like when you hear a new song that makes you feel excited, or when a roller coaster ride feels super thrilling. Your senses help you experience the world!

Psychology and Sensation

In psychology, sensation is the very first step in how your brain understands what's happening around you.

It starts when something, called a stimulus, touches or affects special cells in your organs. For example, light hitting your eyes is a stimulus. After sensation, your brain works to understand it. This understanding is called perception. So, you might first sense light, and then perceive it as "a blue wall."

Imagine tiny cone cells in your retina (at the back of your eye) getting excited by light. That's a sensation!

People in the West usually talk about eight main senses. These are:

• Sight (visual)
• Hearing (auditory)
• Taste (gustatory)
• Smell (olfactory)
• Touch (cutaneous)
• Body position (kinesthetic)
• Balance (vestibular)
• Internal feelings (organic)

How these senses work together to help you understand the world can be different for everyone. It depends on your body, your culture, and where you are. All your senses and how your brain understands their information together are called your sensorium.

How Your Sensory System Works

Your sensory system gives you many ways to know about the world around you.

The Visual System

When you see, Light enters your eyes through the clear front part called the cornea. It then goes through the dark center, the pupil. Next, a part called the crystalline lens bends the light. The light then travels to the retina at the back of your eye.

In the retina, there are two kinds of special cells:

• Rods help you see in black and white, especially in dim light or at night.
• Cones help you see colors. They are very common in the center of your retina. Cones react to red, blue, and green light. Your brain mixes these to see all other colors.

The Auditory System

When you hear, Sound is first caught by your outer ear, called the pinna. It then travels inside through a tube called the external auditory meatus. After this, the sound reaches your eardrum, which vibrates. These vibrations then move through three tiny bones: the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus), and stirrup (stapes). Finally, the vibrations reach the cochlea. The cochlea changes these vibrations into electrical signals that your brain can understand.

The Sense of Taste (Gustation)

Taste, or gustation, is your ability to detect flavors with your tongue. You do this using taste buds. These tiny taste buds are found deep inside small bumps on your tongue called papillae. When you eat, your taste buds work with your sense of touch in your mouth. They also work with other chemical sensors to help you fully experience food.

The Sense of Smell (Olfaction)

Smell, or olfaction, starts when air goes into your nose. Special parts in your nose warm and filter the air. Then, the smell signals go to your olfactory bulb. This bulb is connected to your brain by the olfactory nerve, which is the first main nerve from your brain.

The Sense of Touch

For more details about touch, you can read the skin article. Your skin is your largest organ and is full of touch sensors.

The Kinesthetic Sense

The kinesthetic sense is how you know where your body parts are and how they are moving. It's also called proprioception. This sense helps you walk without looking at your feet or touch your nose with your eyes closed.

The Vestibular Sense

The vestibular sense is your sense of balance. It works because of fluid moving inside special tubes in your inner ear called Semicircular canals. This fluid tells your brain if you are moving or staying still.

The Organic Sense

The organic sense is about feelings from inside your body. This includes sensations from your internal organs. It also covers feelings like hunger, thirst, feeling sleepy, or needing more air (sometimes called air hunger). This sense is also known as interoception.