Sense facts for kids

A sense is how our bodies understand the world around us. It's a special ability that living things have to gather information. This information helps us know what's happening.

Our bodies have many ways to sense things. The five most well-known senses are sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. But humans also have other senses! These include feeling temperature, knowing where our body parts are (kinesthetic sense), feeling pain, and keeping our balance. We can also sense things inside our bodies, like hunger or thirst.

Scientists who study the brain and how we think learn a lot about senses. They look at how our senses work and how they help us understand things.

Animals also have senses, but they can be very different from ours. For example, humans have good eyesight but a weaker sense of smell compared to many other mammals. Some animals might not have all five traditional senses. Other animals can sense things humans can't, like electric fields or changes in water pressure.

What Are Our Senses?

A sense is like a special system in our body. It has groups of cells that react to certain things in the world. These signals then go to specific parts of our brain. Our brain then understands what those signals mean. There isn't one perfect way to count how many senses we have. This is because people define a "sense" in different ways.

We can often divide senses into two main types:

Sensing the Outside World

These senses help us understand what's happening outside our bodies. They are called exteroceptive senses.

• Sight: This is how we see things with our eyes.
• Hearing: This is how we hear sounds with our ears.
• Touch: This is how we feel things with our skin.
• Smell: This is how we smell things with our nose.
• Taste: This is how we taste flavors with our tongue.
• Temperature: This is how we feel if something is hot or cold.
• Body Position: This sense helps us know where our body parts are and how they are moving. It's called proprioception.
• Pain: This sense tells us when something is hurting our body. It's called nociception.
• Balance: This sense helps us stay upright and not fall over. It's called equilibrioception.

Sensing Inside Our Bodies

These senses help us understand what's happening inside our bodies. They are called interoceptive senses.

• These senses tell us about our internal organs. For example, they let us know if we are hungry, thirsty, or if our stomach hurts.

Some animals have senses that humans don't. For instance, some fish can sense electricity. Some insects can see polarized light, which helps them navigate.

In some philosophies, like Buddhism, the mind is also considered a sense organ. This is because the mind helps us understand thoughts and feelings, which are different from physical sensations. This idea shows how important our inner experiences are, along with what we sense from the outside world.

How Animals Sense the World

A simple drawing of the human ear, which helps us hear sounds.

The human body has many senses that help us interact with our surroundings. Here are some of the main ones:

• Hearing: This is how we hear sounds that come into our ears.
• Sight: This is how we see things with our eyes.
• Touch: This is how we feel things with our skin.
• Taste: This is how we taste the flavors of things with our tongues.
• Smell: This is how we smell things with our noses.
• Kinesthetic Sense: This is knowing where your whole body is and how it is moving.

Other animals can have very different senses. For example, fish have a special line along their bodies called a lateral line. This helps them feel changes in water pressure around them. Some fish can even sense changes in electric fields, which helps them find food or avoid danger.

Images for kids

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  The five traditional senses and the body parts we use for them.

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  This painting from 1623 shows the five senses using different objects like musical instruments, books, and food.

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  This picture shows how our body collects signals and turns them into sensations.

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  A painting showing the sense of smell.

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  In this painting, each person represents one of the five senses.

See also

In Spanish: Sentido (percepción) para niños