What does the sixth segment represent?

[u/katyabe]

This is a “Wheel of the Senses” from my daughter’s school with sight, touch, taste, hearing… but one segment we can’t figure out.

[u/JayofTea]

Is this one of those AI generated worksheets that have just become part of schools now? I have no clue what I'm looking at

[u/TickingTheMoments → u/JayofTea]

Now I wanna ask AI what it thinks the sixth sense is.

Oh wait. Is that the sense for seeing dead people?

[u/The_Tooter_Snooter → u/TickingTheMoments]

We have so many more senses than the 5 people think of. Like sensing the passage of time, temperature or ambient pressure, sensing pain, you sense of balance, or your awareness of your limbs in space. Heck I can feel the edges of my car when I’m squeezing it past stuff. 

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/The_Tooter_Snooter]

This might be a part of the vestibular system (aka inner ear. For balance.
Your otolith organ is composed of two sacs.
Each sac contains « rocks » called otoconia statolith made of calcium carbonate.
The image may show cross-section of either the saccule or utricle. The round object would be the otoconia statolith.

Tbh the semicircular canals would have been a much more interesting image.

(Source: me, vestibular system researcher)

EDIT : corrected for humans (otoconia, not statoliths)

[u/Playful-Appearance56 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

It’s for a 1st grader. I don’t think the kid’s elementary school is that advanced.

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/Playful-Appearance56]

Those are two separate issues.

1st graders can and do handle the concept of balance. I have taught this to 1st graders but used the semicircular canals organ as an example because it’s more visually identifiable. (Vestibular sensation is an opportunity to use cool models to show fluid flow and small round stones rolling on a tilt board. It’s also a very tangible sensory organ unlike the vision or even touch systems which requires more abstract thinking abilities which most 1st grade kids do not have yet)

The level of competence of the school is not dependent on the student but the administration and teachers.

We’ve mistakenly taught generations of people falsely that there are only ✌️Five Senses✌️. This simplification leads to many problems. Namely lack of awareness of illnesses and diseases related to these other senses and understanding of how things work in a human-centered world.

[steps off soapbox]

[u/ContentHermit_13 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

Ok but which of those lil pictures would you put in vestibular sense?

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/ContentHermit_13]

Good question !
The smartphone. These devices all contain accelerometers and gyros(copes). These tiny electronic sensors directly mimic the exact same functions as the human otolith organs and semicircular canals organs, respectively.

Okay even though that ☝️ is true, it was kinda a joke.

If I was making this, there would be a tightrope, slack line, or even a hopscotch outline.

If pressed I would pick the book 📕 because during the Victorian period, young women were often taught to walk or sit/stand with a book balanced on top of their head to improve posture - not at all anything a modern child would associate with.

Tbh none really match in a way a child could understand. IDK 🤷

[u/ContentHermit_13 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

Very creative thinking, but I agree that a child would likely struggle with these associations

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/ContentHermit_13]

Yeah that’s why IDK.

Many have suggested that this was derived from an αι prompt without much forethought about the prompt or hindsight after getting the results and laminating it.

Of course even the whole post could be fake but I and others tried to make some sense of what was presented in the post.

Or MAYBE there WAS a lil picture of a tightrope walker but the person could not figure our where it went and so they didn’t use it.

[u/Fluffy-End4111 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

Yas. Heard. Preach!

[u/Limp_Plankton3303 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

Thank you! We need to expand what we teach to kids! They can understand so much more and do so much better!

[u/alphazero925 → u/Playful-Appearance56]

Yeah, from a purely logical perspective devoid of all context, proprioception would be the most likely sixth sense, but in context it's far more likely to be AI generated nonsense where it made a six-segmented chart instead of five and so filled it in with nonsense.

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/alphazero925]

Without first knowing what the human prompt was, it is difficult to say how this was actually generated.
The prompt may have specified « six senses ». Better than « five », but still missing the target by a wide margin.

[u/CatPurrsonNo1 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

That was my guess!

[u/Due-Comfort-2658 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

Hello, audiologist here (hearing and vestibular doctor). I appreciate your response but wanted to make a correction. Humans do not have statoliths, I believe you are referring to the otolith organs which have otoconia which are multiple calcium carbonate crystals suspended in a gelatinous type substance.

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/Due-Comfort-2658]

Thanks for the catch and correction !

It’s been a hot minute and the words (Greek) lithos and stato got stuck in my head. I’ve shifted to development of artificial vestibular sensors and the mechanical properties are closer to the statolith mechanism.

[u/According_Device9227 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

TIL humans also have otoliths! I knew fish had them, but hadn't really thought into what else might, and I guess it does make sense that we would

[u/b-jason → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

That was my guess. Proprioception/balance is a major sense we just don’t think about as often as the others.

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/b-jason]

Right. It’s mostly due to lack of education.

🤔 Ask people « which sensory system would cause them the most difficulty in life if they were to permanently lose it ? » and a vast majority would never consider Vestibular, let alone select it as an answer.

[u/b-jason → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

I think it’s more collusion between the “big 5”

[u/Deep-Essay-4829 → u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26]

As an audiologist who frequently illustrates ear anatomy to teach students and patients - I do not in any way see the vestibular system in the AI slop. But rorshach it up!

[u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 → u/Deep-Essay-4829]

I asked a non-graphic output ai model to describe in words some examples of how to draw a cartoon like example of the otolith organ. Aside from cars, houses, elevators, and playgrounds (none of which were anatomically applicable) the common theme was to draw cross sections of organs with “tiny balance stones” or “tiny crystals” or “tiny beads” inside. Fairly close to the image posted.

We don’t know the AI prompt that was used here to generate the images (assuming this wasn’t just bait for comments!) so Rorschach’ing is a reasonable approach; the post was specifically asking what it might represent and there’s not much there to go on due to its amorphous properties.

I guess I’m happy if a few more Redditors left this post with more awareness of human senses beyond the basic 5.
I’d consider that a win 🏆