Overall there tends to be anything from nine to twenty-one different human senses, it all depends upon how you define a sense. When you ask most people how many senses they have, they will generally give the answer five. That is because the most common and easy to spot sense are smell, touch, sound, taste and sight. However there are also thermoception, proprioception and equilibrioception. Some people even class hunger and thirst under the senses too.

Thermoception is the sensation of heat and that includes heat from both outside the body and inside the body. Equilibrioception is the sense of balance and it is created through the inner ear which controls our sense of balance and when we are ill, it often causes our balance to go a little funny. Finally, proprioception is the sense of the body’s space and this is generally what the police check when they pull you over for suspected drunk driving. So, although there are five main senses, there are also lesser known ones which many people have never even heard of.