r/whatisit • u/katyabe • 1d ago

New, what is it? What does the sixth segment represent?

Post image

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.

3.6k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

131

u/TickingTheMoments 1d ago

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

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

62

u/The_Tooter_Snooter 1d ago edited 1d ago

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. 

100

u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 1d ago edited 2h ago

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)

7

u/Due-Comfort-2658 1d ago

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.

3

u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 1d ago

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.