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The silent “sixth” sense

When we close our eyes, our sense of the world and our body’s place in it doesn’t disappear. An invisible impression remains. This sense is called proprioception (pronounced “pro-pree-o-ception”); it’s an awareness of where our limbs are and how our bodies are positioned in space. And like the other senses — vision, hearing, and so on — it helps our brains navigate the world. Scientists sometimes refer to it as our “sixth sense.”

Proprioception is different from the others in a key way: It never turns off, except in very rare cases. We know what silence is when we cover our ears, we know what darkness is when we shut our eyes.

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Featured

 Proprioception, our imperceptible 6th sense

Proprioception is a key component of our “global positioning system”, which is essential in our daily life because we need to know where we are in order to move somewhere.

Articles of Interest

Assessing proprioception: A critical review of methods

To control movement, the brain has to integrate proprioceptive information from a variety of mechanoreceptors. The role of proprioception in daily activities, exercise, and sports has been extensively investigated, using different techniques, yet the proprioceptive mechanisms underlying human movement control are still unclear.

How A 'Sixth Sense' Helps Simone Biles Fly, And The Rest Of Us Walk

A rare genetic disorder is helping scientists understand our mysterious ability to sense where we are in space, known as proprioception. This "sixth sense" is what dancers and gymnasts rely on to tell them the exact position of their body and limbs at every moment. It also tells them how much force each muscle is exerting.

How Proprioception Gives Rise to Self-Others-Knowledge

Proprioception can be defined in different ways. On the one hand, it is an unconscious registration in the central nervous system of one's own joint positions (Gallagher, 2006).

Improve Balance, Control, and Coordination with These 10 Proprioception Exercises

Proprioception, also known as kinesthesia, is the ability to sense and freely move your body and limbs in your external environment. Having this kinesthetic awareness is important for day-to-day living and vital for sports performance.

Proprioception

Even with our eyes closed, we have a sense of body position—where our arms and legs are, for example, and that we are moving them. Muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear contain proprioceptors, also known as stretch receptors, which relay positional information to our brains. Our brains then analyze this information and provide us with a sense of body orientation and movement.

The Proprioceptive Senses: Their Roles in Signaling Body Shape, Body Position and Movement, and Muscle Force

In everyday activities we depend on signals coming from our moving bodies to be able to respond to the space around us and react rapidly in changing circumstances. Much of this knowledge about position and movement of the limbs and trunk is provided by sensations arising in proprioceptors. The information they provide allows us to maneuver our way around obstacles in the dark and be able to manipulate objects out of view.

Why You Always Know Where Your Nose Is

A new study sheds light on proprioception, the sense a person uses to understand the position of their body parts.

Your “Sixth Sense” Of Body Awareness Depends On This Gene

When it’s not working right, touch and proprioception are thrown out of whack

Resources

Physiopedia

Proprioception (sense of body positioning in space) is an important bodily neuromuscular sense. It falls under our "sixth sense", more commonly known as somatosensation. The term somatosensation (or somatosensory senses) is an all encompassing term which includes the sub-categories of mechanoreception (vibration, pressure, discriminatory touch), thermoreception (temperature), nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance) and proprioception (sense of positioning and movement).