Senses | Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch & Hearing (2024)

senses, means by which animals detect and respond to stimuli in their internal and external environments. The senses of animals are most usefully described in terms of the kind of physical energy, or modality, involved. There are four main modalities: the light senses (photoreception; i.e., vision), the mechanical senses (mechanoreception; i.e., touch, balance, and hearing), the chemical senses (chemoreception; i.e., taste and smell), and the electric sense (electroreception) of certain fish. In addition to these external senses there are also internal senses that use the same modalities. For example, there are proprioceptors, which are mechanical sensors that measure the lengths of muscles and positions of joints, and there are interoceptors that monitor blood pressure. Similarly, there are chemoreceptors that monitor blood CO₂ (carbon dioxide) and pH levels, as well as a variety of receptors that respond at the cellular level to the presence of hormones and metabolites.

Light senses

Vision is used by animals to determine the layout of their surroundings, and thus this sense is particularly important for locomotion. In animals with eyes that have good resolution, vision can be used to identify objects from their geometric appearance; however, this requires a sophisticated brain of the kind found in vertebrates, cephalopod mollusks such as octopus, and higher arthropods, such as bees and jumping spiders. All vision, or photoreception, relies on photoreceptors that contain a special light-detecting molecule known as rhodopsin. Rhodopsin detects electromagnetic radiation—light with wavelengths in the range 400–700 nanometres (1 nm = 10⁻⁹m). There are some animals that can detect infrared radiation (wavelengths greater than 700 nm); for example, some snakes use infrared radiation to locate warm-blooded prey, and certain beetles can use it to sense forest fires. However, animals that detect wavelengths in the infrared do this with receptors that sense heat or mechanical expansion, rather than with photoreceptors.

The rhodopsin molecule of photoreceptors consists of a protein called opsin that straddles the cell membrane with seven helices. These form a structure with a central cavity that contains a chromophore group, which in humans is called retinal—the aldehyde of vitamin A. When retinal absorbs a photon of light, it changes its configuration (from the bent 11-cis form to the straight all-trans form), setting off a series of molecular reactions that lead, within a few milliseconds, to a change in the flow of ions through the cell membrane. In vertebrates light causes the closure of sodium channels, whereas in most invertebrates light results in the opening of sodium channels. One of the functions of the opsin molecule is to “tune” the chromophore group to respond to a particular range of wavelengths. Thus, different opsins with different amino acid sequences allow an organism to have receptors with different spectral responses; this is the basis of colour vision. In humans the rods, which are used for night vision and are sensitive to single photons, are maximally sensitive to blue-green light (496 nm), and the three classes of cones, which mediate colour vision in daylight, are maximally sensitive to blue (419 nm), green (531 nm), and red (558 nm) light. In bees, which also have colour vision, the three maxima are shifted toward shorter wavelengths—ultraviolet (344 nm), blue (436 nm), and green (556 nm). Ultraviolet receptors are also found in birds and fish.

Many invertebrates have the capacity to see and analyze polarized light. Polarization arises from atmospheric scattering and reflection at smooth surfaces such as water. In polarized light all the photons have their electrical fields vibrating in the same plane; this can be detected by photoreceptors if the molecules are appropriately aligned. The projecting microvillus structure of invertebrate receptors makes this possible. Many insects use polarization to work out the Sun’s direction when the sky is overcast, and others use it to detect water surfaces.

The optical systems of eyes break down light according to its direction of origin and thus form images that can be used for navigation and pattern recognition. There are about 10 ways of forming images, including pinholes, lenses, and mirrors. Of these, the single-chambered “camera-type” eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods have the best resolution. The human eye can resolve stripes spaced 1 minute of arc (1/60 of 1°) apart; this is many times better than the compound eye of a bee, which can resolve objects spaced about 2.8°–5.4° apart.