How many main sense organs does a person have and what are their main functions and significance? The sense organs and the brain, the nervous system: how are they interconnected? Rules of hygiene of the main sense organs. How many sense organs does a person have, what are they

Even Aristotle once identified five basic senses, with the help of which a person exists, these are: hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste. With the help of these psychological tools, a person receives primary images about the world around him, which are then analyzed by the brain and give an idea of ​​the location, as well as next steps organism.

The sense organs can be divided into two groups: remote and tactile. Remote ones include:

• vision ;
• hearing;
• sense of smell.

All images received by these senses are perceived by the human body at a distance, and certain parts of the brain are responsible for perception, as well as for creating images, thus creating complex analytical chains.

Tactile senses can be called simpler in their mechanism of action, because touch and taste are primary stage analysis of information by the brain, occur only with direct contact.

Basic characteristics of hearing

Hearing can be called one of the very first sensory senses that develops and also begins to function even before a person is born.. In the womb, the baby already feels the vibrations of the voices of loved ones, perceives music, noise, as well as gentle tones in the mother's voice. Being born, the little man already has in his memory a certain system of sounds to which he reacts.

organ of hearing, very complex mechanism, which implies a chain of certain actions. First of all, human body able to hear sound up to 20 kHz. Secondly, the sound enters the body in the form of vibrations, which are perceived by the eardrum, which in turn begins to vibrate, thereby activating the small bones. The system of hammers - ossicles, in turn, transmits vibrations of the eardrum at a certain pace, during inner ear, reporting information already auditory nerve and then directly to the brain, which reproduces in memory the association corresponding to the received information.

For example, in mobile phone a lot of melodies that correspond to a specific opponent, with each call a person does not have to look at the phone screen, he already knows the name of the caller, because there is an association of the melody with a certain person in memory. Or a person hears a pop, he instinctively turns or ducks, because sharp sound associated with danger. There are many such examples, but the result will be the same, the organ of hearing gives a person the opportunity to reproduce the associated image, which will provide information about what is happening around.

Main characteristics of vision

Like other sense organs, vision begins to develop even in the womb, but due to the lack of information, namely visual associations, the organ of vision is considered underdeveloped. Of course, the baby sees after birth, he is able to respond to light, to the movement of objects, but there is no information that would correlate the images seen.

Vision is considered one of the basic senses, which gives a person 90% of information about the world around him and of course visual system in comparison with other feelings is considered the most difficult. First of all, visual organ not only reproduces the object, it simultaneously reports a lot of related data, for example, size, color, location, distance, this is the action of the process itself. Then all the data is transmitted to the brain with distortions and errors, which the brain corrects or supplements with the help of the information already available.

For example, upon seeing a ball, a person will say that it is a toy, while the brain will give out information about a round object, let's say red, that can be played with. Unconsciously, in a fraction of a moment, a person will receive processed information based on previously gained experience. Or let's say, on the water surface in the distance, a person sees a small dot, which, having previous visual experience, transforms it into a boat or a ship.

The main characteristics of the sense of smell

The olfactory organ, as well as other sense organs, develops in the womb, but naturally, because of the amniotic fluid, the child cannot smell, therefore, by the time of birth it does not have associative information. But after birth, after 10 days, he can smell the presence of his mother nearby by smell.

Of course, the olfactory organ cannot be fully called one of the the most important feelings, since the information received through the sense of smell, in comparison with other organs, is presented in a small amount. However, even a few molecules on the nasal mucosa can bring back many memories in a person's memory through the association between a smell and a certain one. Perhaps precisely because the sense of smell is closely related to psychological perception. environment it is considered the most mysterious and unpredictable person.

British scientists conducted an interesting experiment. In an unfamiliar environment, which causes discomfort for many people, a person felt an unfamiliar aroma that was not unpleasant and at the same time did not cause delight. As a result, when smelling the previously proposed smell again, a person's mood began to deteriorate, and a breakdown appeared. Through this experiment, it was proved that, despite the fact that the basis of smell is the organism, the result is all psychological associations.

Main characteristics of taste

• The sense of taste develops and also begins to function already in the womb, when the baby tastes the amniotic fluid and tastes the food that the mother takes. Scientists conducted an interesting experiment, two months before the birth, expectant mothers were asked to eat sweets with a certain taste every day, for example, raspberry. After birth, children in a series of proposed berries were the first to recognize the taste of raspberries;
• At the heart of the perception of taste, as well as smell are chemical reactions organism. As you know, taste is served by the tongue, which is covered with taste buds, and they are also responsible for determining taste: back wall pharynx, palate and epiglottis. Obtained through the bulbs with the help of the glossopharyngeal and facial nerve in the brain, where there is already a correlation between having experience and, accordingly, the information received;
• For example, it was previously believed that a person can feel only four tastes in certain parts of the tongue, namely bitter, salty, sour and sweet, but modern people are already able to identify a number of other flavors, such as minty, alkaline, tart and metallic. This is not caused by progressive development palatability man, but only by the presence of more information, the mechanism of action remained the same. Taste buds are irritated when exposed to different tastes, and instantly gives the relevant information.

Basic characteristics of touch

• Of course, the sense of touch, as well as other senses, develop even before birth. The baby with great pleasure feels himself, the umbilical cord and mother's tummy. Thus, he receives information about the environment, because the rest of the senses do not help him yet. After birth, the possibilities of touch increase significantly, because now the world you can not only feel, but also see, hear and try, and therefore assign certain associations;
• The sense of touch is based on tactile sensations, which reproduce the received information with the help of nerve endings located under the skin and in the muscles. It receives information about the quality in several ways, by pressure, vibration or sensing the texture of an object. In turn, the brain reproduces the association according to the information received;
• For example, in order to determine by touch a piece of cotton wool, a person does not have to see it. By touch, he will feel the softness and send the appropriate signal to the brain, which will reproduce the corresponding image;
• However, with the help of touch or other senses, it is not possible to evaluate the entire world around us; for this, all five senses in a complex are needed, which are a system for reproducing the environment with the help of association reactions that helps a person to exist.

What do we mean by the word sensitivity and sensation of something? Remember how you enter an empty room, but the feeling of the presence of the essence of someone does not leave you. What is this? The sixth sense, a paranormal phenomenon or a phenomenon absolutely understandable to the laws of physiology.

The concept of "sensitivity" and "sensation"

Sensitivity is the ability of the nervous system to respond to environmental stimuli. How many sense organs do you think a person has? The sense organs are the periphery, a separate anatomical and physiological structure that is responsible for a person's ability to receive stimulus signals. Our brain receives information from the receptor apparatus of the sense organs. When information is analyzed, it is felt in the associative area of ​​the brain. Therefore, we can distinguish the tones of sounds, colors, differentiate shades, and also have stereognosis (the ability to distinguish objects by touch).

After analysis, the impulse along the nerve fibers goes to other organs, which are usually divided into superficial and deep ones. The surface ones are:

• tactile sensation;
• temperature sensation.

The deep ones are:

• muscular-articular feeling;
• feeling of vibration;
• sense of position;
• feeling of pressure.

How many sense organs does a person have? You think there are six of them, but in reality there are many more:

Associated work of the brain with all kinds of sensitivity

In prokaryotes, under the action of any stimulus (light, sound, temperature, or physical, chemical substances) the body responds due to the presence of taxis - irritability, and for higher animals this is due to the action of the sense organs. Moreover, in lower animals there is no analysis and synthesis of the information received. The commonality of the analytical and synthetic activity of the human brain is due to the conjugated work of all the senses. For higher nervous activity, which is realized by the cortex, is characterized by the selection of a separate element of the world perception from the signs of the environment and their combination in combination, the development of variations of sensations. This phenomenon will exactly correspond to the perception of the surrounding world. Due to the systematic work of the head, the ability to higher synthesis was formed.

So, now it is clear how many sense organs a person has, and that the feeling of the presence of a person in an empty room can be associated with the interaction of the peripheral and central nervous systems.

The five senses allow us to experience the world around us and respond in the most appropriate way. The eyes are responsible for sight, the ears are responsible for hearing, the nose is responsible for smell, the tongue is responsible for taste, and the skin is responsible for touch. Thanks to them, we receive information about our environment, which is analyzed and interpreted by the brain. Usually our reaction is to prolong pleasant sensations or to stop unpleasant ones.

Vision

Of all the senses available to us, we most often use vision. We can see thanks to a variety of organs: light rays pass through the pupil (hole), the cornea (transparent membrane), then through the lens (a lens-like organ), after which an inverted image appears on the retina of the eye (a thin membrane in the eyeball). The image is converted into a nerve signal by the receptors lining the retina, the rods and cones, and transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. The brain recognizes the nerve impulse as an image, flips it in the right direction and perceives it in three-dimensional form.

Hearing

According to scientists, hearing is the second most commonly used sense. Sounds (air vibrations) travel through the ear canal to the eardrum and cause it to vibrate. Then they pass through the window of the vestibule - a hole covered with a thin film, and the cochlea filled with a liquid tube, while irritating the auditory cells. These cells convert vibrations into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. The brain recognizes these signals as sounds, determining their volume level and pitch.

Touch

Millions of receptors located on the surface of the skin and in its tissues recognize touch, pressure or pain, then send the appropriate signals to the spinal cord and brain. The brain analyzes and decodes these signals, translating them into sensations - pleasant, neutral or unpleasant.

Smell

We are able to distinguish up to ten thousand smells, some of which (poisonous gases, smoke) alert us to imminent danger. Cells located in the nasal cavity detect the molecules that are the source of the smell, then send the appropriate nerve impulses to the brain. The brain recognizes these odors, which can be pleasant or unpleasant. Scientists have identified seven main odors: aromatic (camphor), ethereal, fragrant (floral), ambrosial (the smell of musk - a substance of animal origin used in perfumery), repulsive (putrefactive), garlic (sulphurous) and, finally, the smell of burning. The sense of smell is often called the sense of memory: indeed, the smell can remind you of a very old event.

Taste

Less developed than the sense of smell, the sense of taste reports the quality and taste of food and liquids consumed. Taste cells, located on the taste buds - small tubercles on the tongue, detect flavors and transmit the appropriate nerve impulses to the brain. The brain analyzes and identifies the nature of the taste.

How do we taste food?

The sense of taste is not enough to appreciate food, and the sense of smell also plays a very important role. The nasal cavity contains two olfactory regions that are sensitive to odors. When we eat, the smell of food reaches these areas that "define" delicious food or not.

Human sense organs are given by nature for good adaptation in the world around. Previously, in the primitive world, the sense organs made it possible to avoid mortal danger and helped to get food. The sense organs are united into five main systems, thanks to which we can see, smell, touch, hear sounds, and taste the food we eat.

Eyes

The eyes are perhaps the most important among the sense organs. With the help of them we receive about 90% of all incoming information. The rudiments of the organs of vision are formed during the development of the embryo from its brain.

The visual analyzer consists of: eyeballs, optic nerves, subcortical centers and higher visual centers located in the occipital lobes. The eyes perceive information, and with the visual cortex we are able to see and evaluate what information the periphery supplies us. The eyes are gorgeous optical instrument, the principle of which is used today in cameras.

Light passing through the cornea is refracted, narrowed and reaches the lens ( biconvex lens), where it refracts again. The light then passes through vitreous body and converges in focus on the retina (is part of the center, rendered to the periphery). Visual acuity in humans depends on the ability of the cornea and lens to refract light. In addition, the eyes are able to move to the side, reducing the load on the spine, thanks to three pairs of oculomotor muscles.

Human sense organs: ears

The ears are part of the organ of hearing. The ear consists of three parts: the outer, middle and inner ear. The outer ear is represented by the auricle, which gradually passes into the external auditory meatus. Auricle has an interesting shape and consists mainly of cartilage. Only the shell lobe does not have cartilage. The outer ear is necessary in order to determine the source of the sound, its localization.

In the external passage, which narrows as you move inward, there are sulfur glands that produce the so-called earwax. After outdoor ear canal the middle ear begins, the outer wall of which is eardrum capable of receiving sound vibrations. Behind the membrane is the tympanic cavity, the main part of the middle ear. AT tympanic cavity there are small bones - the stirrup hammer and the anvil, combined into a single chain.

Next, the middle ear is followed by the inner ear, represented by the cochlea (with auditory cells) and the semicircular canals, which are the organs of balance. Sound vibrations are perceived by the membrane, transmitted to the three auditory ossicles, then to the auditory cells. From the auditory cells, irritation goes along the auditory nerve to the center.

Smell

A person can perceive smells thanks to the organ of smell. Olfactory cells occupy a small part in the upper nasal passages. The cells are shaped like hairs, thanks to which they are able to capture the subtleties of various odors. The perceived information is sent along the olfactory (olfactory) threads to the bulbs and further to cortical centers brain. A person can temporarily lose his sense of smell with various colds. Prolonged loss of smell should cause alarm, as it occurs in case of damage to the tract itself or the brain.

Human sense organs: taste

Thanks to the organ of taste, a person is able to evaluate the food he eats in this moment. The taste of food is perceived by special papillae located on the tongue, as well as taste buds in the palate, epiglottis and upper esophagus. The organ of taste is closely related to the organ of smell, so it is not surprising when we feel the taste of food worse when we suffer from some kind of colds. On the tongue, there are certain zones responsible for determining a particular taste. For example, the tip of the tongue determines sweet, the middle determines salty, the edges of the tongue are responsible for determining the acidity of the product, and the root is responsible for bitterness.

Touch

Thanks to the sense of touch, a person is able to study the world around him. He always knows what he has touched, smooth or rough, cold or hot. In addition, thanks to countless receptors that perceive any touch, a person can get joy (there is a release of endorphins - hormones of joy). He can perceive any pressure, change in temperature around and pain. But the receptors themselves, located on the surface, can only report temperature, vibration frequency, pressure force.

Information about what we touched or who hit us, etc. reports the highest station - the brain, which constantly analyzes many incoming signals. With excessive impulses, the brain selectively receives more important impulses. For example, first of all, the brain evaluates signals that are dangerous to human life and health. If pain occurs, if you burned your hand, a command is given to immediately pull your hand away from the damaging factor. Thermoreceptors respond to temperature, baroreceptors to pressure, tactile receptors to touch, and there are also proprioceptors that respond to vibration and muscle stretch.

Signs of the disease

A sign of a disease of one or another sense organ is, first of all, the loss of its main function. If the organ of vision is damaged, vision disappears or worsens, if the organ of hearing is damaged, hearing is reduced or absent.

With kindergarten everyone has learned and got used to the fact that there are five sense organs. The traditional classification of the sense organs still insists on this. However, it is difficult to argue that we also feel movement, body position, pain, temperature - can the sensory systems that perceive them be called separate sense organs? The sense organ includes specific perceiving receptors, nerve pathways that transmit information to the brain, and a special section (or sections) of the brain that processes this information.

Senses can be divided into remote (sight, hearing, smell) and contact (taste and touch). Then there will be two. You can take as a basis the type of effect on the receptors: mechanical stimulation activates the receptors for hearing, touch and vestibular apparatus, chemical is responsible for taste and smell, and the reaction to light stimuli "monopolized" vision. Feelings can be divided into physical and chemical. But this is an extremely general classification. So how many sense organs do we have?

The organs of vision include two types of photoreceptors that transmit to the brain completely different information. The rods respond to light, and the cones, which can perceive the wavelength, transmit to human brain color information. There are three types of cones on the retina, each with a different task. S-type cones perceive signals in the short-wave, blue-violet part of the visible spectrum, M-type - in yellow-green, and L-type - in yellow-red. This gives rise to the discussion that vision includes the four senses. However, information received from receptors different types, is processed in one - visual - section of the cerebral cortex.

The unique smell of lilies of the valley

The sense of smell is the champion in the number of different types of receptors, there are about 2000 of them. Recognizable smells are formed, like chords, from the simultaneous stimulation of several receptors. But there are also specialized receptors. Reacting, for example, to the smell of lilies of the valley and nothing else. The olfactory center in the cerebral cortex processes all the information from the olfactory receptors and gives us the ability to distinguish about a trillion different odors.

Chicken flavor

Four key types taste buds well known: they provide the perception of salty, bitter, sour and sweet. It is also known that the tongue has receptors for protein foods - rich in protein the food seems especially delicious. These receptors respond to glutamic acid and its salts are glutamates. Back in 1907, the Japanese chemist Kikune Ikeda (Kikunae Ikeda) isolated this amino acid from algae and called its taste umami (jap. “appetizing taste”). Specific receptors for umami were not discovered until a hundred years later. At the same time, French scientists found fat receptors on the tongue (and not only on the tongue, but also in small intestine). And there is reason to believe that the list of taste buds will continue to grow.

Give "la"

Hearing receptors are also highly specific: from 12 to 20 thousand hair cells located in the cochlea of ​​the inner ear respond to different frequencies, transforming mechanical vibrations into electrical potentials. Some people perceive high tones before ultrasound, while others do not. With age, with injuries, after illnesses, the ability of receptors to capture individual frequencies can change, while the rest of the tones a person perceives unchanged. Receptors responsible for determining the direction of the sound source have also been found.

Touch and press

Touch receptors are located in the skin and mucous membranes. They allow you to feel the hardness, roughness, sharpness, pressure force and other tactile characteristics of objects. Mechanical deformation of the receptor reduces electrical resistance its membranes, which generates an electrical impulse for transmission to the CNS. Receptors respond to touch, pressure, stretching and other contact stimuli. The feeling of pressure is one way to judge the weight of an object.

The visitor strokes the rabbit in the first Far East petting zoo "Sadgorod", whose inhabitants can be fed, stroked and picked up. Photo: Vitaly Ankov / Ria Novosti

And you are so cold

Thermoreception with great accuracy informs us about the temperature of objects. Thermoreceptors are located in the skin, mucous membranes, cornea of ​​the eye, as well as in a special part of the brain - the hypothalamus. There are two types of thermoreceptors: heat and cold. Some thermoreceptors can also perceive tactile information, others are strictly specific to temperature.

keep your balance

Vestibular receptors are located in the inner ear. There, in three mutually perpendicular planes, there are three semicircular canals filled with a thick liquid. Acceleration of the fluid when moving through the channel in one direction causes excitation of hair cells, and in the other - inhibition. In the inner ear, calcareous formations - otoliths - are also located on the membrane. Sliding along the membrane, they excite the receptors connected to it. Information from hair cells is transmitted to medulla, activating the neurons of the vestibular complex, and from there to spinal cord, cerebellum, cerebral cortex and other parts of the nervous system.

Not feeling legs

If the vestibular apparatus tells about our position relative to the ground, then proprioception gives information about the position of body parts relative to each other and allows you to easily bring a spoon to your mouth. Proprioception is made up of three key sensations. The first is the feeling of the position of the joints with an accuracy of 0.5 degrees. The second is a sense of movement that allows us to control our actions. A person deprived of signals from these receptors often stops moving and is forced to learn anew, based on visual information. The third is the feeling of strength, which makes it possible to assess the resistance to action, in particular, to determine the weight of objects with great accuracy. A person does not even realize that the parietal lobe of the brain is constantly updating the actual scheme of the body in our minds.

The most unloved sensory system

Nociception is the feeling of pain. There are at least three pain sensations: skin, bodily (pain in the joints, bones and spine) and visceral (pain in the insides). Nociceptors respond to mechanical, chemical and thermal stimuli. Pain receptors have a genetically overestimated sensitivity threshold: only when it is reached, the signal is transmitted to the brain. If the sensitivity threshold is lowered, nerve fibers pain receptors get irritated at any external influence. This condition is called hypersensitivity to pain. Long time nociception was attributed to touch, but even their reaction to anesthesia is different: first, a person stops feeling pain, then temperature, and at the same time still perceives tactile sensations.

Settings

How sensitive should the receptors be? At first glance, the question seems strange: the more sensitive, the better. All are proud of their sharp hearing and eyesight. However, it is important to remember that the upper threshold of sensitivity should also be comfortable for perception, hypersensitive people receive redundant information: too loud sounds, pungent odors and taste interfere with the nervous system to process signals, and overload of the vestibular apparatus leads to seasickness and other disorders.

More feelings

A person is able to relatively accurately measure time intervals in minutes and hours, but the existence of a “time organ” has not yet been proven. Recently, a study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the innate sense of probability: scientists investigated the ability of people to predict the outcome of an experiment, guided by " inner feelings”, but so far accurate data on “probabilistic receptors” have not been received.

For one more interest Ask genetics should answer in the near future. It is known that animals have many senses that we do not have: fish and amphibians have electroreception, the bats use ultrasound, and whales use infrasound, many species feel the magnetic field. The question arises - are these feelings inactive in a person or has he completely lost them in the process of evolution?

In any case, it is obvious that we have much more than five sense organs, and with the development of science, their known number will increase.