Thermoception || Unconventional Senses and Sensory Attributes
❯ ❯ Thermoception
The brain's recognition and the body's ability to register changes in temperature. Or, put more simply, sensitivity to heat flux and temperature intensity. Animals possess a diversity of temperature sensitivity mechanisms. All thermosensors have activation thresholds and are moderated by various inflammatory mediators (e.g., some proteins are intrinsically heat-sensitive, others are cold-sensitive).
What does this mean? It means thermoception is fundamental to animal survival, as temperature homeostasis is essential to comfort and reproduction. It also means the human body cannot actually determine the absolute temperature of its environment; it must instead regulate its own temperature relative to that of its immediate surroundings.
Mutated or damaged proteins (as with inflamed or damaged tissue), associated with temperature detection, can result in heat hyperalgesia (pathological sensitivity to heat), in which one's heat-activation thresholds are so markedly low that otherwise pleasant and warm temperatures can be very painful.
❯ ❯ Adapted from a senses-writing masterpost: 15 Unconventional Senses and Sensory Attributes
