GE11 11-12

• Sensorium


  The totality of our senses and perception; a conglomerate of the individual sense organs
• Olfaction


  Sense of smell
• Tactile


  Something associated with touch
• Pheromone


  A substance believed to be emitted by organisms and which is thought to be influencing social behaviors
• Major Histocompatibility Complex


  A set of protein molecules associated with the immune system
• When we were children, we were taught that there are five bodily organs, which corresponds to our primary senses, that we use to explore and experience the world around us
• Our eyes enable our sense of sight (visual), so that we are able to see visual stimuli (color, size, shape) in the environment
• Our nose enables sense of smell (olfaction), so that we are able to experience scent
• Our ears allow us sense of hearing (audition), so that we are able to experience sounds of varying tones, pitches, and volume
• Our tongue is covered with taste buds that allow us sense of taste (gustation), so that we are able to experience the taste (e.g., saltness, sweetness, bitterness, etc.) of our food and other objects we put in our mouth
• We have sensory reception in our skin, muscles and joints which allow us the sense of touch/feeling so that we are able to have tactile experiences, e.g., heat or its absence, various texture, various physical pressure
• These five senses comprise our sensorium-the totality of our sensory experiences and perception
• While we receive information from our environment through the senses, our brain has the ability to organize and interpret these numerous stimuli into meaningful ideas that are useful for our choices (behavior)
• Our affect (emotions and feelings) actually play a major role in our behaviors
• We should be able to sense the environment, organize the stimuli we receive, and interpret these stimuli, so we can make a choice and corresponding action
• We will not be able to arrive at the behavior if not through our senses
• This makes our sensorium a necessary component of the emotional response arc
• Humans like us have three primary emotional responses: fight, flight, or freeze
• Humans are predominantly visual
• Our societies highly rely on visual culture to co-create meaning and convey information
• Visual memory is deemed superior to other forms
• Women and men differ in strategies of viewing sexual stimuli
• Women tend to pay more attention to contextual and nonsexual cues than men
• Women are putting prime on subjective valuing of circumstances
• Humans and apes are generally believed to be microsmatic (lesser levels of olfaction) compared to their non-ape counterparts
• Sense of smell may play an important part in our sexual response
• Heterosexual females tend to like wearing floral-sweet but want musky-spicy scent to be worn by their partners
• Heterosexual males and homosexual females prefer wearing musky-spicy scent and liked their partners to wear floral-sweet scent
• Homosexual males wanted musky-spicy for themselves and their partner
• Individuals tend to be attracted to other people with a different set of MHC genes
• Pheromones are thought to act as attractants (of the opposite sex), repellants (of the same sex), stabilizer of mother-infant bond, and modulators of menstrual cycle
• Touch is observed to be an element of intimacy
• Areas such as the mouth, anus, genitals, and nipples are referred to as primary erogenous zones
• The back, cheek, neck, and buttocks are secondary erogenous zones
• When we touch, our body produces a hormone called oxytocin
• Oxytocin is referred to as the love hormone because it is believed to influence tribal behaviors and maternal bonding
• Oxytocin is observed to be produced in vast amounts during nipple stimulation, such as for instance when a mother suckles her newly-born
• In intimate relationships, touch is suggested to be one of the love languages
• The brain is a powerful organ that consolidates and processes these stimuli into meaningful units and wholes
• Touch is suggested to be one of the love languages

  A person whose love language is touch tend to give and receive tactile stimulation to and from others through holding, hugging, and other forms of physical connections