How Do Our Senses Work?

To understand senses, you first have to understand the outer layers of the human body, such as skin. Skin is basically a protective outer layer for your body. But, it helps in so many ways! 5 very important functions of the skin are:

1. Protection against disease
2. maintaining body temperature
3. waste exchange
4. formation of vitamin D
5. Sensory response 

A FAQ(frequently asked question) I receive from many people is how do we feel touch, pain, etc.? Well, there are many parts of the human body that are working to control your senses. First off, your nervous system is what controls feeling. That is why when you feel something really hot, you don't even think about pulling your hand off, you just do it. That is because your body is sending messages telling you to remove your hand from the hot object before your reflexes even process whats going on. The nervous system is a network of cells called neurons that transform information the form of electrical signals.  The human brain has around 100 billion neurons. The signals are sent from the brain, down the spinal cord, and carried throughout the body. If you are interested in getting more detail from this topic, you can go to this website about your nervous system to get more specified details.

     Next, we can talk about how the brain originates touch, and what messages are sent throughout the body to register touch. The picture above is the visual image I get when I think about senses, because the brain sends the messages down the spinal cord. You have two cortex's that are meant for two different types of feelings in the brain. The motor cortex, and the somarosensory cortex. The motor cortex is the part in the brain's cerebral cortex where the nerve impulses originate that initiate the voluntary muscle activity. I found a video on youtube that was probably one of the most direct and informative videos I have ever found while researching for an assignment. The video is a general overview of how our senses work. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post, I hope it was somewhat helpful to all of you readers!