You Have a Sixth Sense You Probably Aren't Using Yet - MedScape
( July 9, 2021; MedScape )
Humans have a sixth sense that most aren't using, but they could learn to. Some people who are blind have already figured out how to tap into this, in much the same way dolphins navigate underwater and bats find their way in pitch darkness. And it is only a matter of time before others figure out how to do this too, scientists say.
Our five senses — sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch — help us understand and perceive the world around us. But according to two recent studies, people can tap into a so-called sixth sense and learn how to navigate through darkness when our eyesight can't break through.
I'm not sure I agree with characterizing it as a "sixth sense". To me, it seems more like learning to use the other senses in a different way. Semantics aside, though, I guess we've all seen videos like this one:
For discussion, aside from its obvious utility for blind people, does this lost skill still have uses in modern society?
Cited Studies:
- Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program ( June 2, 2021; PlosOne )
- Effectiveness of time-varying echo information for target geometry identification in bat-inspired human echolocation ( May 5, 2021; PlosOne )
Read the rest from MedScape: You Have a Sixth Sense You Probably Aren't Using Yet
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Earlier researchers had suggested another form of sixth sense, called proprioception.
Here's the full article on Live Science A Sixth Sense? It's in Your Genes
Interesting. Thanks for the reply.
That seems more like an actual "sixth sense" to me than echolocation does, although proprioception still might just be an aggregation of input from the other senses. The article says that a gene determines how good we are at it, but I don't think it suggests a mechanism by which we accomplish it, except they imply that it's linked to the nervous system.
In common, both echolocation and proprioception are tested by observing how people move about without the use of sight.
I agree as well. This is apparently a distinct operation from the traditional five. It is my first time hearing of it tho, so I was elated to read more on the external link provided and I came across the PIEZO2 gene. I am yet to further my curiosity on this gene and its true work. I majored in Biology at college so this whole topic is fondly interesting for me.
The blind guy in the video basically has super heightened hearing capacity. I don't see how this becomes a sixth sense. If I developed the capacity of my left hand, it does not mean I have three hands. So I find it hard to side with the sixth echolocation sense.
Maybe it depends on what precisely is meant by "sense". We apparently use our olfactory system to help determine taste, but characterize that mechanism of part of our sense of taste, right?
By the same token, if our approach is to define a sense by the utility derived from interpreting sensory input toward a certain outcome, and we recognize that developing a conceptual model of a surrounding environment can be characterized as distinct from other applications of evaluating auditory sensory input (verbal processing, for instance), then does the clarification as a different sense ... make sense? Lol; pun intended!
Perhaps this is an area that is well defined (and is be interested in learning more of the nuance), or maybe it's something that could use some specificity from the scientific community....
For me it is to develop the senses that we already have and take advantage of them to support or "supplant" the senses that do not work correctly.
It is amazing how for lack of one of the senses another develops, nature does not stop surprising us.
Yes, we must develop that sixth sense, for this we must first, be centered people, in addition to delving into that energy that moves the universe, creation and therefore us. Thank you for such an interesting topic.