Take a Deper Dive into the Hidden Senses
Vestibular
The term vestibular most commonly refers to the body's balance system, which is housed inside the inner ear and processed by the brain. It is responsible for giving you a sense of balance, spatial orientation and coordinating your movement.
The Vestibular System
The vestibular system consists of several microscopic, fluid-filled structures located in the inner ear:
Semicircular Canals
Three loop-shaped tubes that detect rotational movements, like nodding or shaking your head.
Otolith Organs (Utricle and Saccule)
Structures containing tiny calcium crystals that detect gravity and linear acceleration, like riding in a lift or a car.
Vestibular Nerve
The sensory pathway that sends these balance signals directly to the brain.
Vestibular Disorders
When these inner ear structures or their pathways in the brain are injured or diseased, it leads to a vestibular disorder. The most common symptoms include vertigo (a spinning sensation), chronic dizziness, general unsteadiness and nausea. Common conditions include
BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo)
Loose inner-ear crystals that cause brief, intense spinning when you move your head.
Vestibular Neuritis
Inflammation of the vestibular nerve, often caused by a viral infection, leading to sudden, severe vertigo.
Ménière's Disease
Fluid buildup in the inner ear causing vertigo, hearing fluctuations and tinnitus.
Treatment and Rehabilitation
Many vestibular issues are managed through specialised physical therapy called Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT). This involves targeted eye, head and balance exercises designed to train the brain to use alternative sensory inputs (like vision and leg muscles) to maintain balance
Proprioception
Proprioception allows you to perceive your own body position, movement and force in space without relying on sight. This critical sensory system operates through a continuous feedback loop between your nervous system and specialised receptors located in your muscles, joints and tendons.
The Core Components
According to clinical resources like Harkla, the proprioceptive system consists of four primary elements.
Joint Position Sense
Knowing where your limbs are located relative to the rest of your body.
Kinesthesia
The conscious or unconscious awareness of active or passive body movements.
Force Perception
The capacity to judge how much muscular effort and pressure are required for a task.
Postural Control
The ability to maintain equilibrium, balance and physical stability.
How It Works Under the Bonnet
Your brain maps your body using sensory data fed by mechanoreceptors called proprioceptors. Three main types of receptors track your movements.
Muscle Spindles
Embedded in skeletal muscle fibers, they monitor how far and how fast a muscle stretches.
Golgi Tendon Organs
Positioned between muscles and tendons, they measure the load, tension and force being applied.
Joint Receptors
Found in joint capsules and ligaments, they track when a joint reaches its movement threshold or changes angle.
This data travels up the spinal cord. It splits into conscious pathways heading to the sensory cortex (giving you an awareness of your limbs) and subconscious pathways heading to the cerebellum (automatically coordinating your balance and posture).
Everyday Examples
Touching your nose with your index finger while your eyes are closed.
Stepping up or down curbs without needing to look directly at your feet.
Pressing an egg shell hard enough to crack it without crushing the contents inside.
Typing on a keyboard or playing an instrument without staring at your hands.
Proprioceptive Dysfunction
When the brain fails to process these sensory inputs effectively it results in coordination and motor difficulties.
Signs of Dysfunction
Frequently bumping into walls, using too much force (breaking pencils or slamming doors), appearing clumsy or needing to look at limbs to move them correctly.
Associated Conditions
Proprioception can be altered by physical injuries (like an ankle sprain), neurological disorders (like stroke or neuropathy), aging or neurodivergent profiles like Autism and ADHD, where individuals may actively seek out deep pressure or heavy work to feel grounded.
How to Train and Improve It
You can retrain and strengthen your joint position awareness through physical therapy and balance exercises. Targeted routines often involve standing on one leg, utilising balance boards, performing single-leg deadlifts or exercising with your eyes closed.
Interoception
It is the sensory system that allows you to perceive internal physical and emotional states, such as hunger, thirst, heart rate, muscle tension and the need to use the bathroom.
While the five traditional senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) help us understand the outside world, interoception acts as your brain's internal monitoring system.
It involves receptors located in your internal organs, muscles and tissues that send signals to the brain. These signals help your body maintain internal balance (homeostasis) and heavily influence your emotions and behavior.
Recognise physical needs
It tells you when you have a growling stomach or a dry mouth so you know to eat or drink.
Process emotions
It translates internal physiological reactions—like a racing heart or a tight chest—into feelings of anxiety, stress or excitement.
Regulate responses
It prompts you to take action, such as putting on a jacket when you feel shivering muscles or taking deep breaths when you feel tense.
--------------NOT A SENSE!--------------
Alexithymia
"How do you Feel?"
do you have no words for emotion?
A personality trait characterised by severe difficulty identifying, describing and processing one's own feelings. While individuals with alexithymia still experience physiological or emotional sensations, they struggle to make sense of or communicate them.
Identifying Emotions
Difficulty differentiating between similar emotional states or struggling to tell the difference between a physical sensation (like a racing heart) and an emotion (like anxiety or fear).
Describing Emotions
A limited emotional vocabulary that makes it difficult or impossible to verbalise how one is feeling.
* The chart above is an excellent tool to realise how to express 'feeling' or 'emotion' words.
Externally Oriented Thinking
A tendency to focus heavily on logic, external facts and practical realities rather than internal, introspective emotional states.
Prevalence and Causes
Occurrence
Alexithymia affects roughly 10% of the general population.
Co-occurrence
It is highly prevalent among neurodivergent individuals. Approximately 50% of people on the autism spectrum experience alexithymia. It is also frequently found in individuals with conditions like depression, PTSD or eating disorders.
Origins
It is not a standalone mental health disorder, but rather a subclinical trait. It can stem from genetic predispositions, childhood trauma or neurological differences in emotion-processing regions of the brain (such as the anterior cingulate cortex).
Impact on Daily Life
People living with alexithymia often find interpersonal relationships and social situations challenging, because they may not read other people's emotional expressions easily and struggle to respond in "socially expected" ways, they can sometimes appear distant or detached.
Seeking Support
If you or a loved one are navigating the impacts of alexithymia, finding ways to manage emotional disconnect and build communication strategies is key. Professional support—such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or specialised neurodiversity-affirming therapy—can be immensely helpful. In the UK, organisations like The Brain Charity offer practical resources, group therapy and emotional support for individuals living with various neurological traits.