# Is balance a 'sense'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2000, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622 "2000-04-17T13:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jackas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3bc359/32.png) [@jackas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackas)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/1 "2000-04-17T13:04:00Z")
We use our inner ear to balance using a form of ‘touch’ I guess you could say but why do we always say ‘Lost my SENSE of balance…’ Why isn’t balance our sixth sense? Can balance be classed as a sense or is it a combination of touch (using those little feeling hairs in our inner ear) and sight (to give us a reference as to where we are)? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/2 "2000-04-17T13:50:00Z")
I think I asked this once here. IIRC, the consensus was that balance is an extension of the sense of touch. The fluid in the ears’ semicircular canals activates nerve cells similar to our skin’s touch cells. ## If it were a separate sense, the sence of heat, cold, pressure, and pain could all be segregated as well. Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/3 "2000-04-17T14:40:00Z")
Remember when you were a kid and you used to spin round and round until you fell over? (Well, I used to do it.) Try it today and see if you think balance should be lumped together with touch! The division of the senses into five groups is rather arbitrary. Balance using the inner ear can be grouped with touch, balance using the eyes could be grouped with sight (that’s what ice skaters have to use when spinning) but really it’s up to you. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/4 "2000-04-17T14:44:00Z")
I got my ears cut during an operation so I can’t very well balance with them. I can balance with 1. muscles 2. eyes Thus, balance is NOT a sense. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/5 "2000-04-17T15:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by handy: > **I got my ears cut during an operation…** Like a doberman? ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/6 "2000-04-17T15:06:00Z")
And, if your inner ear is truly gone, there are things you cannot do because you’ve lost them. All senses are an interface between the central nervous system and the physical world. Each one has a point where mechanical stimulus is converted to nervous signal. Pain is a sense, proprioception (muscle) is a sense, balance is a sense. If you’re going to call balance a form of touch, you might as well call them all a form of touch. The concept of 5 senses is an anachronism from the early days of physiology, the fact that we combine imput between taste and smell doesn’t lead people to declare that they’re not both senses. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/7 "2000-04-17T16:37:00Z")
If we’re re-evaluating senses, how different are taste and smell? With both of them, you’re sensing the presence of chemicals. * * * _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/8 "2000-04-17T19:08:00Z")
::Test Post. Please ignore this post. If there are multiposts above, please ignore them too.:: ---
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/9 "2000-04-17T19:18:00Z")
Balance is normally achieved by integrating sight, inner ear inputs, and touch (proprioception ?). It can be accomplished by ignoring all but the visual inputs as is done in instrument flight or by relying on the remaining senses (c.f. handy’s post above). **handy:** I’m impressed, I had no idea that you had to balance without your inner ears. Was it hard to learn ? I wonder how you would do as an astronaut ? It would be interesting to see how well you would take to instrument flying without your ears to confuse you. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/10 "2000-04-17T19:36:00Z")
Yes, Oblio, the word proprioception is correct. One of the essays in _The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat_ is about a woman (IIRC) who has no proprioception. She looks directly at her feet while walking, and gets along okay. But if she quits paying attention to a limb, it might end up in some weird position, since it doesn’t feed any information about its position back to the brain. * * * Hopefully, I can convince you to accept “hopefully” as a disjunct adverb. Frankly, I would be lying if I said I were confident. Perhaps this subject is simply too complex for me to explain. Unfortunately, I would be lucky to explain my way out of a paper bag. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/11 "2000-04-18T06:52:00Z")
You, know, I’ve tried the holding my nose routine while doing a taste test. And you know what? I can still taste! That’s right, all the basic tastes are still there with my nose held or clogged with a cold. I’ve always thought that people who said you loose taste when you can’t smell what your tasting were nuts. I guess I’ve found my unique superpower. Anyone else? Peace. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2000, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/12 "2000-04-18T07:34:00Z")
When I took psychology class many years ago, they told us that we have 15 senses not counting smell: Sight: 1) B&W vision, 2)Red 3)Green 4)Blue color vision. 5) Hearing 6) Balance 7) Kinesthesia (proprioception) Touch: 8)pressure 9)pain 10)hot 11)cold Taste: 12)salt 13)sour 14)sweet 15)bitter Recently, they added another taste called unami (detects MSG). The exact number of different smell receptors was unknown, but was thought to number in the thousands. As far as I know, this has not changed except for the added taste receptor. ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/13 "2000-04-19T00:11:00Z")
Assuming we are not limiting this to humans, birds have two very interesting kinds of receptors. Grandry’s corpuscles are found in the tongue and buccal cavities of many species that locate their prey by touch, such as wood storks and woodcocks. They are found only in birds, and exactly what it is they detect is unclear. Herbst’s corpuscles are found in many birds and are believed to be vibration receptors. The herbst’s corpuscles in the feet and tibia of birds account for the extreme and well documented sensitivity to distant explosions — the birds sense the vibrations carried along the ground. I suggest you read the article TOUCH in the book _The Audubon Society Encylcopedia to North American Birds_ by John K. Terres, published by Wings Books, a division of Random House Value Publishing, Inc. * * * To he who has lost his hope: Please claim it at the lost and found at the front desk. Thank you ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/14 "2000-04-19T03:14:00Z")
Another sense found in the animal world is to be able to sense electric fields. I believe eels and some sharks have this ability. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-balance-a-sense/10622/15 "2000-04-19T04:54:00Z")
Well, I know it’s not to me.