Exploring our Five (5) Senses & Behavior
Experience your world
Human Five Senses
Human beings have five (5) senses that most of us grew up learning about in our early childhood school years. However, how many of us ever really understood just how important these fives senses are to how we live our daily lives? The fives senses include hearing, touch, taste, olfactory, and visual. All five impact our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. This article will explain the fives senses and describe how they each impact our thoughts, beliefs, and behavior so much so that if we want to change the way we think, believe, and behave we have to start by changing what our fives senses takes in that ultimately impacts us.
Hearing
Olfactory Sense
Human ears can pick up sounds as low as 20 Hz and as high as 20,000 Hz, the tiniest bones in the body make up our ears, one time irreversible damage can occur if listening to sound 85 decimals or higher, we hear because of tiny hairs located in our ears that if gone we will not be able to hear, our balance is connected to our hearing, and our ears are connected to our esophagus which can impact our ability to taste (Sperling, n.d.). Hearing loss impacts human beings for various reasons, with aging being the number one reason. Hearing impacts us throughout our lifetime, even those who are deaf, the sensation of hearing effects their lives by reason of their other senses (specifically touch and vision) increase in brain functioning to overcompensate for their loss of hearing (Neurosci, 2012). This overcompensation by their vision and touch impacts a persons ability to experience normal balance that would otherwise be subject to disability.
Our ears are the sounding board for sounds coming in. We have the opportunity throughout every day to change what comes into our ears and impacts our lives. What we listen to, watch and listen to on television, who we talk to, the hobbies we invest in, our friends we speak to, and the events we attend all impact our hearing worlds and impact the person we are. Our hearing does not turn off at night, either. Hearing continues throughout our entire day and lives regardless if we are sleeping or unconscious, and when hearing is on our brain continues to expand knowledge of our surroundings and take in our present reality. Take a moment and ask yourself what sounds you are allowing to come into your ears right now and throughout your life is positive, negative, or neutral. Now, take inventory to change those sounds that are negative. What we allow our ears to hear directly impacts how we think and what we believe about ourselves and about others (Sathyanarayana et al., 2009). Sathyanarayana et al. describe in their article how hearing is directly linked to our own internal beliefs about ourselves. The next time you speak to someone remember that your words have the potential for deep impact into how the person believes in their ability. Let this not only impact the way you speak yourself but how you speak to your children, neighbors, coworkers, and anyone else who is passing you by in your day.
Touch
In the United States we have a culture that states cliches of “to be alone is power”, “I do not need anyone in my life”, “I am better off alone” among other popular statements made by people to reflect their belief that to be alone is what is best for them as an individual statement of power. While being single, living alone, or valuing alone time is not in itself wrong or bad, believing that to be absent of relationships with other human beings, sharing any emotional attachment to another person, caring for another person, or being cared by another person is good to one’s health and wellness is actually not true. One of the greatest abilities of human beings is our ability to relate to each other, and this connection has been proven to be required to survive. Humans actually require touch and connection from the moment we are born into this world (Ardiel & Rankin, 2010). Infants who are not touched, held, or nurtured are at risk for developmental growth delays and even death (Ardiel & Rankin, 2010). As human beings age, touch and connection remains critical to life (Heatley & Dunbar (2020). Aging adults and elderly people in care homes begin to lack touch and connection, specifically more often touch, leading to loneliness and this loneliness has been linked to premature death (Bush, 2001; Tummers & Ijsselsteijn, 2023).
Healthy touch
A seemingly quick innocent hug can have a big impact. Hugs have the ability to lower our stress hormone cortisol and increase are wellbeing. So the next time some one hugs you, hug back (Blanchfield, 2022).
Touch has many different forms. Touch is not only positive and helps us survive and live better lives, touch can also be negative. Every day around the world people are touched in ways that are unhealthy, violent, uncaring, rough, inconsistent, and unwanted. Both positive and negative touch impacts our beliefs and actions throughout our lives. Unfortunately, when touch hurts us in someway we can resolve ourselves to no longer wanting to be touched at all by another human being. Then some people allow so much touch or relish in relationships revolved around touch that being away or alone can drive them to being unable to experience contentment in moment away from touch that may actually be needed in their own growth process as an individual. Both spectrums of touch can be with consequences to self in how we think and behave in every day life. Healthy touch is defined as affective touch (Silvestri et al., 2024). Silvestri et al. define affective touch (AT) as touch that:
“Supports the establishment and maintenance of social connections and mitigates the effects of social conflict and ostracism. AT is used to describe slowly moving, low-forced mechanical stimulation that is frequently perceived as pleasant. In humans, AT has been addressed particularly for its role in promoting bonding and emotional regulation during early development; however, more recent studies have suggested that AT also preserves physical and emotional well-being in adulthood (p.1).”
Healthy touch, the term used in this article as a synonym to affective touch, is paramount to human development, growth patterns in children, and length of life in adults. If healthy touch is so positive then the opposite, unhealthy touch, is very negative. Unhealthy touch is defined by touch that hurts the person experiencing the touch which may include physical assaults, sexual abuse, or other forms of touch that creates a negative thought process and feeling in the person receiving the touch. Unhealthy touch has been shown for decades to lead to serious disorders including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Dunmore, Clark, & Ehlers, 1999; Freeman et al., 2013; Johansen et al., 2020). Johansen et al. study found that physical assaults can lead to a PTSD diagnosis, but they also found and studied that the right social support (i.e., healthy touch) can offset the symptoms of PTSD and actually begin to treat the disorder indirectly. So we know that unhealthy touch can lead to negative outcomes but also that part of treating the negative outcome related to the unhealthy touch includes healthy touch and relationships. Circling back to the early development patterns of low or no touch to infants and sickness and death; in elderly and aging adults this same touch pattern of low or no touch (leading to isolation and loneliness) can be detrimental to their life cycle, length of life, quality of life, and early death (National Institute of Aging, 2019). All in all, healthy touch, relationship, and connection are critical to life cycle wellness and development course of life.
The sensation of touch does lead to thoughts, beliefs, and behavior for people. The type of thoughts, beliefs, and behavior people have related to touch is all dependent on the type of touch, consequences of touch, and outcome of the touch the experience. When PTSD for example is present a persons thoughts, beliefs and behavior can be fraught with fear, startle responses, belief of lack of safety, paranoia, low self-esteem (Cooper et al., 2017; Zoellner et al., 2011). On the other hand, when social support is high stress is more likely to be lower which can lead more positive thoughts and beliefs (Ozbay et al., 2007). It is important recognize the importance of healthy touch throughout our lifetimes. One neat fact, Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is being more widely used in assisted care living homes for healthy touch to be present for aging adults who are frequently lacking in social engagement, support, and healthy touch (Orr et al., 2023).
Taste
The sense of taste is also known as our sense of gustation. There are five sense of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory. Taste receptors are not only located in our mouths but throughout our bodies and are paramount in regulatory processes. Also interesting, the sense of taste is impacted by all five senses as a whole. Our sense of smell, taste, touch, visual, and hearing are involved in our intake of food which prepares us for our next meal, primes us to what we need to take into our body, whether we are hungry, and steps we need to take to ensure we are going to survive (Gravina, Yep, & Khan, 2013).
Taste can affect our thoughts, beliefs and behavior. Taste creates memories, just like all of our senses do, and these memories impact how we feel day to day. Let me give you some examples. When a person with alcohol dependency is getting sober they are staying away from alcohol if they are around the same group of people who they drank with, out to eat at the restaurant they always drank wine at, or still keep alcohol in their fridge the memories attached to these locations, people, or settings can start the salivary glands to begin to prepare for drinking alcohol. When the person does not drink alcohol as their body begins to prime them to do cravings will start to get stronger oftentimes creating thoughts that can either be negative or begin to taunt them to not follow their goals to sobriety and instead its okay to drink and engage in the very thing they want to stop. This same pattern happens in any type of behavioral change a person wants to begin. The mind begins to develop thoughts surrounding the change to many time push the person to engage in the very behavior they do not want to do. Can be a very interesting mind game. Taste prepares our bodies for food intake beginning in the memory systems first both our memory in our body and memory in our brain.
Olfactory (smell)
Our sense of smell is important in the evolution of humans as distinct creatures in their culture and population. Humans have around 50 million or more receptors that detect odor of our food, friends, enemies, family, children, and mating attractions (Sarafoleanu et al., 2009). Our sense of smell is connected to our sense of taste, both of which impact our social environments and settings. For instance, think about the changes in food types people of various cultures and economic status occur.
Human emotions are impacted by sense of smell. Certain scents for instance can help calm a person down (i.e., peppermint), increase energy (i.e., orange or blossom), help sleep (i.e., ), trigger memory (i.e., smell of rain reminding you of a recent breakup on rainy day prompting emotion of sadness or smelling perfume that reminds you of your mom who is your best friend triggering the feeling of joy), or trigger action (i.e., smell smoke which alarms you to a fire and triggers you to seek safety and get help).
Take a moment and experience your outer environment.
Your sense of smell explores your environment for you regardless of intentional purpose. However, realize the power of this sense to your emotions and take a moment each day to be intentional to embrace the moment right before you.
Therapists can use smells in therapy to help processing to occur for clients. Smells can help in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) when creating a safe place with our clients. Peppermint incense paired with a person’s safe place can help to pair calm to the smell to the memory which can then be used to bring about at any time a sense of calm. This pairing can help clients to utilize on their own at any time to reduce their negative symptoms they are working on in therapy. During trauma work this can be used as well for clients to calm down or ground themselves when provoked to stress or another negative symptom. Our sense of smell is perhaps one of the most taken for granted senses we have. Our sense of smell keeps us safe, connected to our environment and family, and enhances our sense of taste.
Vision
When asked which of the five senses is most important and least desired to lose more people respond with losing their eyesight (Enoch et al., 2019). Eyesight seems to bring together all of our senses to make a complete picture. Without eyesight our other senses will overcompensate for the missing sense of sight to ensure a human being can survive and meet their needs (PLoS Biol, 2005). Our vision helps us to orient to time and place, create meaningful connections, seek safety, understand our circumstances, among so much more.
The art of vision
Vision is perhaps the most impressive sense we have that impacts our beliefs, feelings, and behavior on so many different levels. When we see what appears to be a threat we run, we see and perceive those we are attracted to and persist in relationship with, we experience connection with friends and strangers through our ability to recognize they are there and we are alike, and possibly one of the greatest abilities with our sense of vision and being human is the ability to recognize a persons emotions and thoughts without them ever speaking a word. Impressive as our bodies and minds are, a person who is blind has greater ability to connect and socialize through their enhanced senses that over compensate for their loss sense of sight (Bauer et al., 2017). Again, returning to the above mentioned importance of connection and relationship humans need throughout their developmental lifetime to survive and live.
The sense of vision in people who can see causes them to have memories that hold not only vision and images in mind but all the other senses that combine with that image. A memory is not just a memory that is static but instead is a memory that is alive in our bodies. To point out, when a person has a memory of a loved one who passed away they will feel emotion with the memory (i.e., sadness), they can hear their loved one’s voice, feel their loved ones touch, and smell their loved one’s favorite perfume. All of the senses come together to create this very live and real memory. This is why memory can be hard to change without intentional actions to change how we interrupt and perceive the memory in place. Because vision triggers such memory types there is a great role this plays on a person’s core beliefs and thoughts which ultimate have relationship to the actions they do. People born blind have never experienced visual memory of objects. However, they do dream of visual objects as stimulated through brain scans during sleep where their brains fire in the same places as people with sight dream and object placement in the brain fire in sleep. People blind from birth, though, dream less of objects and more of memory of sensations of hearing, taste, smell, and touch (Baird, 2020). Fascinating to recognize that our bodies and minds change to ensure our human race survives in their environment the best they are able to. Surely, this research points to the fact that connection and relationship, again, are critical to survival for all individuals.
Finally
How do we change the impact our senses have on us when they are negative? It is very simple to answer this question, start by changing what you allow into your senses to begin with. Review what you are watching, the people you are with the most, the job you do daily, the hobbies you engage in, the music you listen to, the food and drinks you take in, and the boundaries you have with touch. Create a pro and con list of each point you examine and see if there is something you can change now that will impact you positively tomorrow. People many times think that you have to change a great deal to change their thoughts. This is typically not the case. Take inventory of your present reality and what you allow into your senses then change what is negative and keep what is positive. If you are not sure what is positive versus negative ask someone who cares about you to help you with your list. If you are struggling to know if an area is positive or negative it is likely negative and you not wanting to give it up. Take courage and take the step to change your life.
References
Silvestri, V., Giraud, M., Macchi Cassia, V., & Nava, E. (2024). Touch me or touch me not: Emotion regulation by affective touch in human adults. Emotion, 24(4), 913–922. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001320
