ABSTRACT
All creatures interact with the world in some manner. Our senses enable us to capture vast amounts of information to which we are constantly exposed. ese complex, sophisticated systems help us take in information about our environment. Along with the signal processing units in our peripheral and central nervous system, we manage the data that drive our behavior, growth, and survival as individuals and as a species. Humans have significantly more than five senses. Beyond sight, taste, smell, pressure (touch), and sound, we have senses of time, pain, proprioception, temperature, hunger, and more. Animals have many variations on the senses we share, and some have sensing capabilities humans do not. eir senses operate at different wavelengths, different sensitivities, and via different structures with different transduction principles. Squid, spiders, and many insects can sense the polarization of light, as has been discussed earlier in Chapters 4 and 5.1,2 Some birds, insects, and mammals are able to sense magnetic field directions via specific biological magnetoreceptors, which are used for navigation.3,4 In each organism, evolutionary pressure has driven our bodies to prioritize certain sensing modalities (certain types of information capture) over others.
