huffingtonpost - 26 days ago

We are all familiar with our main senses, right? Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and a myriad more depending on which scientist you speak with. In fact, according to the Sensory Trust, we could have over 20 of them.Now, researchers at the Queen Mary University of London have unearthed a new sense that is a little different to the main ones we’re familiar with. It turns out that humans have a form of ‘remote touch’: the ability to sense objects without direct contact which is actually a sense that some animals have, such as sandpipers (a type of bird).It’s an exciting discoveryIn a study, participants were asked to move their fingers gently through sand to locate a hidden cube before physically touching it. The research found that “human hands are remarkably sensitive, detecting the presence of buried objects by perceiving minute displacements in the sand surrounding them”.If you’ve ever seen a bird probing sand with their beaks to find prey, they’re using pressure and vibration cues to hunt and that’s something this study suggests we are capable of too, through ‘remote touch’.The research expands our existing understanding of how far the sense of touch can reach.Elisabetta Versace, senior lecturer in Psychology and lead of the Prepared Minds Lab at Queen Mary University of London, said: “It’s the first time that remote touch has been studied in humans and it changes our conception of the perceptual world (what is called the ‘receptive field’) in living beings, including humans.”How exciting.Related...The Science Behind Enjoying Spicy Food Even If It HurtsYes, Science Says Exercising In Winter Really Is HarderScience Has Brought Us One Step Closer To Butt Breathing

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