Sensation
Your senses bring information from the world around you and from within your body. Together, these signals help shape what you notice, how you move and how you respond.
Body sensations
Touch, pressure & vibration
Skin receptors respond to contact, pressure, stretch and vibration. They help you notice texture, movement across the skin and where contact occurs.
Temperature
Temperature-sensitive nerve endings provide information about warmth and coolness.
Itch
Itch is a distinct sensory experience often accompanied by an urge to scratch. Sensory pathways carry and process signals that contribute to it.
Nociception & pain
Nociception is the nervous system’s processing of potentially tissue-damaging stimuli. Pain is a personal sensory and emotional experience, shaped by biological, psychological and social factors. They are related, but are not the same thing.
Position, movement & internal state
Proprioception
Signals from muscles, tendons, joints and skin help you sense where your body parts are and how they are moving.
Muscle spindles report muscle length and changes in length. Golgi tendon organs report tension transmitted through tendons.
Balance & orientation
The inner ear’s vestibular system detects head motion and orientation relative to gravity. It works with vision and body-position signals to support balance and steady gaze.
Interoception
Your nervous system senses and processes information from within your body. Hunger, fullness, breathing and heartbeat are familiar examples that can enter awareness.
Familiar senses
Vision
Light-sensitive cells in the retina begin the signals used to perceive shape, color and movement.
Hearing
Hair cells in the inner ear turn sound-related vibration into neural signals.
Taste & smell
Taste receptors respond to chemicals dissolved in saliva; smell receptors respond to airborne molecules. Together, they contribute to the experience of flavor.