Five Senses in a Pillow Fight

Professor Kirkpatrick’s lecture brought our whole experience of learning about each sense full circle. After considering each of them individually, and their vital biological purpose for our survival, it is quite baffling to realize that we simply would be “blobs that do nothing” if we were completely senseless. As I was sitting doing my homework and considering the possibility of being absolutely nothing, I began to feel rather lethargic and useless, "perhaps", I thought, "I feel this way because I have only been using my vision, one sense, for the past four hours. It seems that, as humans have been gifted with so many senses, that being human to our full capacity must require the use of all our senses, as much as possible throughout every activity. If this is true, than I have often been failing to be a human to my full capacity." I started to hear a raucous in the next room and the smell of popcorn which both drew me in, so went to investigate, only to find a pillow fight starting to brew. This was all I needed to fully engage four more of my senses and return to being human at full capacity.

As I snatched two pillows, I noticed how important it was that I was able to experience their weight and soft exterior. The nerves in my hands must be sending signals up to my brain that I’m holding large soft squishy things and that I’m preparing to fling them at my friends. Without the sense of touch working together with my vision, I would never be able to coordinate the pillow making contact with my target. Another sense became very apparent as I felt a blow across my face and stepped backwards to catch my balance. This must be activating my sense of proprioception that professor Kirkpatrick described as a connection between the fluid in our ears, information from our vision and our muscles and cerebellum all working together to give us our sense of balance. Forcing this system to work in overdrive like at a theme park for example has always been a great source of fun, which the pillow fight certainly indulged.

Next, the high pitched frequencies of my friends shouts and the complex timbre of their laughing, hit my ears, causing the three bones in my ear to vibrate, moving the fluid around the cochlea, pulling on the cilia hair cells and sending quick messages to my brain through the auditory nerve. Each combination of sound alerting me that we all meant business when it came to hitting each other and no one was about to back down.  The use of my hearing was the most enjoyable aspect of the experience, it conveyed so much more than the biological function of “am I endanger”. The sounds of shrieking and laughter, assured me that I should hastily continue and filled me with the energy to do so.

Of course my vision was also very necessary to properly aim my pillows at their mark, I don’t however think that was as crucial a sense as hearing and proprioception and touch. I could have carefully listened to the movement of my friends’ feet or body hitting the ground, maybe the swish of the pillow in the air. Even so, it added a whole other layer of “sense” and enjoyment to the situation. I would never have been able to see the look of amusement, indignation and fierce intention on my friends’ faces without it. As   Professor Kirkpatrick described, the lens in front of my pupil must have been working overtime to bend the light into my retina so that the rods and cones could quickly pick up the information and send it to the thalamus. From there to the occipital lobe and then to my association cortex to decipher which direction the pillow would be coming next and where I should jump to and aim my next throw.

As humans we are so privileged to have such a variety of senses, that not only allow us to survive, but give us the opportunity to enjoy almost every experience we encounter.

We have the ability to pick and choose, which sense we want to focus on, letting the others fade away, a phenomena called attention blindness. Also as professor Kirkpatrick described, we have the association cortex, which, almost instantly, connects the information we are receiving from all of our senses. We can be aware of a multitude of different aspects of life around us, all at the same time. As humans have already developed so much capability throughout evolution, what will come next? Will we gain more senses, become aware of other dimensions? Or possibly we will solidify the sixth sense and everyone will be able to communicate through thought. Or maybe, as we mentioned in class, we will be born with a switch, that will enable to us turn on and off the senses of our choice and experience the life of a blob that does nothing. I guess we will never know.