Animal Senses #13: Combinations
In the last but one chapter of Immense World , Ed Yong reminds us of something that was easy to forget given the level of detail each chapter had on one particular sense. Animals’ don’t use just one sense, they use a combo. How do mosquitoes identify the individual to suck blood from? By sensing their body heat and the release of carbon dioxide. Scientists tried masking one of the two signals, and the mosquito would still home in on its, er, food source. It is obvious why animals use multiple senses: “Each sense has pros and cons, and each stimulus is useful in some circumstances and useless in others.” Beyond complementing each other, senses can also “combine”. In humans, it is rare and we call it “synesthesia” (For people with this ability/condition, sounds have colors, words have tastes and so on). “This perceptual blurring is special among humans, but standard to other creatures.” How do we know this? Because the neurons in their brain that receive signals from o...