Which sense do you think is more profound? I think vision is generally considered the most important sense, but this could be because it is the most vital to survival.
I believe that audio is more powerful than imagery. When I a noise or melody, images come to my mind that I feel accompany it. I don't think its very often to imagine sound given solely an image. Music artists make videos to go with their music - they don't make the video first and then put sound to it (I hope).
But then again, art(painting, sculpture, etc) has been around forever, and has had significant influence. I suppose both sight and sound, like all the other senses, have their own need to be stimulated.
Posted by Mr.Gumby (Member # 6303) on :
I believe sound is a very important sense. Anybody who watched the SpiderMan cartoon episodes with DareDevil can understand why. Sound allows us to "see" what's on the other side of walls and stuff.
Posted by seriousfun (Member # 4732) on :
The sense that evokes the strongest emotions is: smell. We are wired, deeply, to produce specific chemicals that trigger specific messages from specific sensory input, and smell does this most efficiently.
Sound is next - without this, no one would have "our song."
Sight is more highly developed, and less primative - we can focus on one small detail with our eye/brain much easier than we can with our ear/brain.
Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
quote:The sense that evokes the strongest emotions is: smell
I have heard this said over and over. I don't believe it.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
*agrees with anticool*
Sound totally is more evoking than smell, to me.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Smell is directly connected to the limbic system; sight and sound are not. The fact that smells trigger the limbic system more strongly can be easily measured.
Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
Of the limbic system, I know not.
But I do know that I can remember having a strong conscious emotional response to sight and sound, but not to smell.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Generally speaking, I think there are many more sounds in everyday life than smells.
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
quote:I believe sound is a very important sense. Anybody who watched the SpiderMan cartoon episodes with DareDevil can understand why. Sound allows us to "see" what's on the other side of walls and stuff.
Yes, but notice that DareDevil has to have super-human senses just to give him something that essentially imitates sight. In terms of day-to-day function, sight is definitely more important than hearing.
It is true that smell is most closely linked to memory though, just as rivka said. Have you ever had an experience when a small has just suddenly brought back clear memories of a place or a person which you weren't thinking about at all? Sounds can do it to, but it's not quite the same. I'm not sure how to describe the difference...
Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
quote:Have you ever had an experience when a small has just suddenly brought back clear memories of a place or a person which you weren't thinking about at all?
Not that I recall.
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
Since I used to be conversant in ASL, I'd definetly rather do without sound.
Posted by KrabbyPatty (Member # 7055) on :
I was walking down a hallway at the high school. When I walked near the woodshop, the smell of the freshly-cut wood brought back a powerful memory of my dad, who died 25 years ago. I used to love being in his shop and working with him when I was a kid. The smell definitely triggered the memory, which then was also visual and aural.
Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :
No doubt about it, humans are primarily visually oriented.
We devote huge amounts of brain to this sense, and our eyes take in over 3,000 bits of information per second. Human eyes are among the best in the animal kingdom, and our color sense is neary unmatched.
But I love all of the senses, together. Certainly there is a huge component of though devoted to sound processing, and that is linked to language--an ability so far beyond most animals that they can't even come close to our linguistic abilities.
Smell is closely linked to emotions, taste is vital to identifying safe, and, yes, yummy foods.
And touch is... well, I'm not going there.
It is only when we think about losing one or another sense or another that we consider this. It's much like the left-brain vs. right-brain argument: really, normal, sane people are balanced. It is only when extraordinary circumstances arise to separate the hemispheres from communicating with each other that we see a difference.
Aint bein' human grande? Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
Erik,
Are you saying that blind or deaf people are insane?
One interesting aspect of Deaf culture is that many would remain deaf if given the chance to hear. They don't view it as a disability. To them, they speak another language. Simple as that.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
About the sense memory thing, I can remember (after 8 years) the scent of the perfume the girl I went on my first date with was wearing, but I can't quite remember with exactness either what she looked like (I have vague memories, but I doubt I could accurately reproduce exactly what she looked like), or the sound of her voice.
Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :
No, I'm saying that a normal, everyday human does not think with one side of their brain or another.
I was using this as an analogy to say that we use all of our senses in concert. It is only as we lose them that we question whether or not one is "better" than another.
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
I would be pretty grouchy if I lost either one. But I guess I'd opt to keep sight, because then I would retain the ability to gawk idiotically at flimsily dressed girls, and without that, I would be nothing.
[ March 25, 2005, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Book ]
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
Erik, Just making sure
It is an interesting analogy. It is very difficult to gauge or imagine the experience of being blind or deaf.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
You know, I've never had a smell bring back a memory for me, either. People talk about this all the time, but I've never experienced it.
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
I can't say that I have experienced the smell-memory connection, either. However, that's probably because my sense of smell is unusually weak. My respiratory system has suffered multiple insults over the years, and my sinuses are usually clogged.
I wonder if this doesn't account, in part, for my fairly unemotional nature.
Posted by Epictetus (Member # 6235) on :
I've never had a smell evoke memories for me either. All in all, I'd have to say that sound is more important to me than sight. But, then again, I am a musician, so that probably makes me biased.
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