Our five senses–sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell–seem to operate independently, as five distinct modes of perceiving the world. In reality, however, they collaborate closely to enable the mind to better understand its surroundings. We can become aware of this collaboration under special circumstances. Show In some cases, a sense may covertly influence the one we think is dominant. When visual information clashes with that from sound, sensory crosstalk can cause what we see to alter what we hear. When one sense drops out, another can pick up the slack. For instance, people who are blind can train their hearing to play double duty. Those who are both blind and deaf can make touch step in—to say, help them interpret speech. For a few individuals with a condition called synesthesia, the senses collide dramatically to form a kaleidoscope world in which chicken tastes like triangles, a symphony smells of baked bread or words bask in a halo of red, green or purple. (For more on how the senses can cross each other and into unusual territory, see “Edges of Perception,” by Ariel Bleicher, Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012.) Our senses must also regularly meet and greet in the brain to provide accurate impressions of the world. Our ability to perceive the emotions of others relies on combinations of cues from sounds, sights and even smells (see “I Know How You Feel,” by Janina Seubert and Christina Regenbogen, Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012). Perceptual systems, particularly smell, connect with memory and emotion centers to enable sensory cues to trigger feelings and recollections, and to be incorporated within them (see “Smells Like Old Times” by Maria Konnikova Scientific American Mind, March/April 2012). But the crosswiring of the senses themselves provides some of the most fantastic fodder for illusions, inventions and just plain art. Here are a few of the best examples of the complex interactions – and extraordinary feats – of our cross-wired senses. Seeing What You Hear
Beep Baseball
Calling What You See
Let Your Fingers Do The Hearing If taught early in development, the Tadoma Method can help a deafblind child learn to speak as well as to understand others. Those who lose their sight and hearing later in life can use it to read lips. But because the method is extremely difficult and time consuming to learn, by the 1950s it began to lose ground to American Sign Language as the dominant teaching method. In ASL, the deafblind place their hands over another signer’s hands and follow the motions with their fingers—which is easier because the movements are far less subtle. Today, only about 50 people in the world still use of the Tadoma Method. Watch some of them at work in this clip.
Do You Have Synesthesia? Take This Test
A World In Which Senses Fuse
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Lena Groeger is a graduate student in New York University's Science Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Before moving to New York she worked as a graphic designer for Brown University Health Education, and before that studied philosophy (the obvious choice for a science journalist). You can check out her Web site, follow her on Twitter, and find more of her writing on Scienceline. Follow Lena Groeger on Twitter What is it called when one sense influences another?Sensory interaction refers to the ability of one sense to influence or interact with another. Two senses that commonly interact with each other are taste and smell.
What is a sensory interaction?the integration of sensory processes when performing a task, as in maintaining balance using sensory input from both vision and proprioception. See also cross-modal association; intersensory perception; perceptual synthesis.
How do our senses influence our perception?As soon as something is sensed and perceived, the brain's Executive Functions 'tell' (or direct) the senses to pay attention to particular things. By looking at or listening out for the 'right' things we get a more complete picture of the situation: we can perceive the situation as a whole to understand it better.
What is sensory perception in psychology?Sensory perception involves detecting, recognizing, characterizing and responding to stimuli. There are five different kinds of stimulus, they can be categorised as mechanical, chemical, electrical, light and temperature.
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