Making sense of our senses

Our bodies are incredibly sophisticated and help us to make sense of the world around us by using our five key senses. Most of this goes on completely subconsciously.  These five senses are sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. You use at least one of your sense throughout each moment of every day and often use more than one as they work in conjunction with ones another. They are one of the key ways that our bodies give us indications of whether we are in danger or feel unsafe. Did you know that your senses continue working even whilst you sleep?

Here are some more details of three of our five amazing senses.

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Eyes

Each day our eyes take millions of pictures of the items that we see and send information to our brains that then in turn help us to interpret the images that have been taken. Our eyes are one of the quickest ways for us to make sense of our surroundings and to scan for any potential dangers. They are probably the hardest working of all our senses having to take these minuscule pictures from the moment that we wake up until we fall asleep in the evening.

Nose

Our noses not only help us to identify the smell around us but also play a role in how we taste our food. The smells that are detected by our noses can affect our behaviour, such as making us feel hungry when we smell popcorn or hotdogs and can even effect how and what we buy. This is why Scent Marketing, like that provided by https://moodmedia.co.uk/project/scent-marketing-for-businesses/ is becoming an incredibly popular way of encouraging visitors into your store or increasing their dwell time. Candle shops are a good example of this. If you think of any of the high street shops that predominantly sell candles you will be able to recall some of the smells and also recall their brand name.

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Ears

Similarly, to our eyes, our ears pick up the vibrations of numerous different sounds each day, some of which our brain then interprets and others than we almost ignore like a white noise in the background. Soundwaves are caused by vibrations that are channelled into our ears and then sent to our brain in electrical messages that in turn are interpreted. These noises can indicate a number of things to us and similarly to sights and smells can cause certain memories to be recalled and can evoke a whole range of emotions.