The human body has 5 traditional senses to identify information from the outside world. The sixth sense is sometimes called “psychic” or “extra” since it can’t be understood under scientific terms.

The classical 5 senses are sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Additional sixth senses include balance (equilibrium), acceleration, and pain (nociception).

5 Senses: Sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

1. Sight: Vision through the eye
2. Hearing: Hearing sound through the ear
3. Smell: Sense of smelling through the nose
4. Taste: Sense of taste through the tongue (is sometimes called gestation although, scientists no longer use this term)
5. Touch: Having a sense of touch through different skin parts, such as hairy and smooth skin.
6. Types of senses: The 5 senses are also classified as exteroceptive and interoceptive senses.

Exteroceptive senses are the 5 classical senses that relate to external stimuli. These are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. There are also proprioceptive senses within the body to identify where you are in relation to your surroundings. Proprioceptors are located throughout the human body and provide feedback on the position of your body.

The interoceptive senses are independent of external stimuli and provide information about the state of the body internally. An example is the sense of balance, which provides feedback on our orientation in space through the vestibular system. Other internal senses include pain, nausea, suffocation, and hunger.

6th Sense: Intuition

The sixth sense is also known as the human “intuition,” although this sense doesn’t involve an external stimulus and is therefore controversial. It can be argued that it includes all types of sensations, including pain, but the pain has not been included in the list of traditional 6 senses since scientists have considered it an interoceptive sense.