Humans have traditionally been said to have five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. However, modern science recognizes that humans possess many more senses beyond these classical five. Expanded Number of Senses:
- Neuroscientists typically identify at least nine senses, which include the original five plus:
- Balance (equilibrioception)
- Body awareness (proprioception)
- Temperature perception (thermoception)
- Pain perception (nociception)
- Some researchers argue there are between 22 and 33 senses, including senses like:
- Kinaesthesia (sense of movement)
- Chronoception (sense of time passing)
- Interoception (internal body states such as hunger, thirst, and internal pain)
- Others, like eco-psychologist Michael J Cohen, propose up to 53 senses by broadening the definition to include mental and emotional sensations, hormonal senses, and sensitivity to environmental factors like gravity and air pressure
Summary: While the classical five senses are well-known, humans actually have a complex array of sensory systems that allow perception of balance, body position, temperature, pain, internal bodily states, and more. The exact number of senses depends on how broadly one defines a "sense," but it is widely accepted that humans have at least 9 and potentially over 20 distinct senses
. Thus, humans have many more than five senses, with modern science recognizing a range from about 9 to over 30 senses depending on classification criteria.
