From childhood we are told that humans have five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. But your school teachers were wrong. All of us have at least thirty-two senses - and our survival depends on them. In Super Senses, award-winning science journalist Emma Young explores our surprisingly rich sensory lives. She discovers why the main function of our ears isn't for hearing; how we can find taste receptors in places other than our tongues; how improving your sense of smell might increase your enjoyment of sex; why the semi-nomadic Himba people can't distinguish between blue and green but Russians can see two shades of blue; and how touch can confuse the way your brain registers pain. She also delves into the 'new' senses - including balance and internal-sensing - without which you'd be dead within minutes. And by exploring the lives of people with sensory over-sensitivity to those who feel no emotion at all, Young shows that our senses don't simply inform us, they form us. Traversing cutting-edge research and drawing on the experiences at the extremes of the sensitivity spectrums, as well as stories from history and anthropology, Super Senses takes readers on a journey that will make them see themselves, and the world around them, through entirely fresh eyes.

A fascinating new book that helps us make sense of our senses.

The Senses: A Comprehensive Reference, Second Edition, Seven Volume Set is a comprehensive reference work covering the range of topics that constitute current knowledge of the neural mechanisms underlying the different senses. This important work provides the most up-to-date, cutting-edge, comprehensive reference combining volumes on all major sensory modalities in one set. Offering 264 chapters from a distinguished team of international experts, The Senses lays out current knowledge on the anatomy, physiology, and molecular biology of sensory organs, in a collection of comprehensive chapters spanning 4 volumes. Topics covered include the perception, psychophysics, and higher order processing of sensory information, as well as disorders and new diagnostic and treatment methods. Written for a wide audience, this reference work provides students, scholars, medical doctors, as well as anyone interested in neuroscience, a comprehensive overview of the knowledge accumulated on the function of sense organs, sensory systems, and how the brain processes sensory input. As with the first edition, contributions from leading scholars from around the world will ensure The Senses offers a truly international portrait of sensory physiology. The set is the definitive reference on sensory neuroscience and provides the ultimate entry point into the review and original literature in Sensory Neuroscience enabling students and scientists to delve into the subject and deepen their knowledge. All-inclusive coverage of topics: updated edition offers readers the only current reference available covering neurobiology, physiology, anatomy, and molecular biology of sense organs and the processing of sensory information in the brain Authoritative content: world-leading contributors provide readers with a reputable, dynamic and authoritative account of the topics under discussion Comprehensive-style content: in-depth, complex coverage of topics offers students at upper undergraduate level and above full insight into topics under discussion

AS HEARD ON THE CHRIS EVANS SHOW A fascinating and revelatory look at how we can unlock the true potential of our five senses and use them to vastly improve every single part of our lives. How can colour prime you for creative thinking? What kind of music helps you run faster? Which scents can help you fall asleep? Our senses have a powerful effect on how we think, feel and behave; yet we don't use them to their full potential. For over a decade, multi-sensory marketing expert Russell Jones has been using the science of the senses to design products, brands and retail environments that tantalise our senses in revolutionary ways. In this incredible new book, Jones takes research from the worlds of neuroscience, experimental and behavioural psychology and beyond, and shows you how to live more multi-sensorially; paying attention to the sounds, scents, colours, objects, shapes and textures that constantly surround you, to profoundly impact and improve every aspect of your life. Whether it's helping you feel energised in the morning, get the most from your work-out, be efficient at the office, avoid getting caught in the traps of savvy retailers or creating the perfect sensory background to enjoy your food with. And, finally, he helps you have the most restful evening and night's sleep you possibly can. Sense is a fascinating and revelatory look at how you can use your senses in a way you never have before.

The nineteenth-century sciences cleaved sensory experience into two separate realms: the bodily physics of sensation and the mental activity of perception. This division into two discrete categories was foundational to Victorian physics, physiology, and experimental psychology. As David Sweeney Coombs reveals, however, it was equally important to Victorian novelists, aesthetes, and critics, for whom the distinction between sensation and perception promised the key to understanding literature’s seemingly magical power to conjure up tastes, sights, touches, and sounds from the austere medium of print. In Victorian literature, science, and philosophy, the parallel between reading and perceiving gave rise to momentous debates about description as a mode of knowledge as well as how, and even whether, reading about the world differs from experiencing it firsthand. Examining novels and art criticism by George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Vernon Lee, and Walter Pater alongside scientific works by Hermann von Helmholtz, William James, and others, this book shows how Victorian literature offers us ways not just to touch but to grapple with the material realities that Clifford Geertz called the "hard surfaces of life."

Forget about science, the scientific method and all that other junk you learned before: this is the guide for the public-health superstar wanna-be!

Diagrams and simple experiments are used to explain the five senses.

“A blend of research findings and real-world anecdotes about people’s sensory experiences enlivens this historical view of the science behind perception.” —Science News Ever wonder why some people have difficulty recognizing faces or why food found delicious in one culture is reviled in another? John M. Henshaw ponders these and other surprising facts in this fascinating and fast-paced tour of the senses. From when stimuli first excite our senses to the near-miraculous sense organs themselves to the mystery of how our brain interprets senses, Henshaw explains the complex phenomena of how we see, feel, taste, touch, and smell. He takes us through the rich history of sensory perception, dating back to Aristotle’s classification of the five main senses, and helps us understand the science and technology behind sensory research today. A Tour of the Senses travels beyond our human senses. Henshaw describes artificial sensing technologies and instruments, unusual sensory abilities of the animal kingdom, and techniques for improving, rehabilitating, and even replacing sense organs. This entertaining introduction to sensory science is a clever mix of research findings and real-world stories that helps us understand the complex processes that turn sensory stimuli into sophisticated brain responses. “A Tour of the Senses is a fun book, which may be of interest to anyone who’s ever wondered how the eye or ear works.” —American Journal of Human Biology

The senses play a vital role in our health, our social interactions, and in enjoying food, music and the arts. The book provides a unique interdisciplinary overview of the senses, ranging from the neuroscience of sensory processing in the body, to cultural influences on how the senses are used in society, to the role of the senses in the arts.

"Eye-opening…memorable…Rosenblum's enthusiasm is contagious and his prose accessible." —Kirkus Reviews In this revealing romp through the mysteries of human perception, University of California psychologist Lawrence D. Rosenblum explores the astonishing abilities of the five senses—skills of which most of us are unaware. Drawing on groundbreaking insights into the brain's plasticity and integrative powers, Rosenblum examines how our brains use the subtlest information to perceive the world. A blind person, for example, can "see" through bat-like echolocation, wine connoisseurs can actually taste the vintage of an obscure wine, and pheromones can signal a lover's compatibility. Bringing us into the world of a blind detective, a sound engineer, a former supermodel, and other unforgettable characters, Rosenblum not only illuminates the science behind our sensory abilities but also demonstrates how awareness of these abilities can enhance their power.