SENSE

also called sensory reception, or sense perception the mechanism or faculty by which an organism is able to react to changes in its external or internal environment, in particular through the activation of specific parts, which transform the energy change involved into vital processes. In all higher animals this involves transductionconversion of internal or external stimuli into nerve impulses that travel to specialized areas of the brain, where they are analyzed. The higher organism is thus enabled to react appropriately. The five senses ordinarily enumerated for animals include sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Other senses include the kinesthetic (motion) sense, the senses of heat, cold, pressure, pain, and equilibrium, or balance.