The (Many) Senses

Always love starting the day with a run and learning something new. Today’s instalment came courtesy of a recommendation – Professor Barry Smith on Russell Brand’s ‘Under The Skin’ Podcast.

What did I learn? Things like:

• We commonly think of five senses (sight, sound, taste, feel, smell). It turns out we’ve slightly underestimated that one…..in fact it’s between 20-30 (depending on different viewpoints). For example, the sense of balance.
• Heavier dishes will make the creamy pudding within it taste better and more luxurious. At the same time, sugar water tinged with red colouring will taste sweet, whereas green colouring will taste sour – i.e. our visual sense overrides our tastebuds.
• Experiments have shown that the sound your shoes make when walking can change your posture – the less you hear, the less bouncy and energetic your posture (which made me wonder, running as I was with earphones on, exactly how much impact that has had on my running gait over the years). They built special shoes for this experiment – but it’s a similar thing to the sensory deprivation chambers that some people have these days.
• Washing your hair with shampoo that has the smell of apple will actually make your hair feel softer to touch (!)

The interview is full of nuggets like that. I’ve not watched the video of the interview but if that’s easier, here’s the link.