Forget the 5 senses: A neuroscientist says you actually have 7

What if we actually possesss seven senses rather than the traditional five? More importantly, what if tapping into these “hidden” faculties could help us to navigate our lives, making everything from self-regulation to understanding others infinitely more simple?

We spoke with Andrea Bariselli, a neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, author and podcaster, to discuss two “extra” senses currently gaining traction in scientific circles – proprioception and interoception. 

The expert details how these bonus senses underpin our intuition – but can these really be catalogued alongside the long-established roster of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch?

More than meets the eye: Uncovering the ‘hidden’ 6th and 7th senses

Bariselli breaks down the definition of the two additional “senses”.  “Proprioception is what allows us to sense our body’s position and movement in a given space,” he says. This concept goes a long way in explaining why proprioception drills have become a staple in modern fitness routines, helping us maintain better awareness, control and balance beyond our workouts and in our daily lives.

“Interoception, on the other hand, is how we perceive and process our body’s internal signals such as our heartbeat, breathing or hunger,” he explains. “Together, they offer the brain a constant, real-time map of what’s happening both inside and outside of our bodies.”

The science of intuition: Why your body thinks faster than your mind

Bariselli suggests that intuition is far from a mystery. “Intuition often stems from subtle signals in our body that the brain processes long before they reach our conscious awareness,” he notes. 

When it comes to these “hidden” senses, the neuroscientist tells us: “Interoception captures internal cues while proprioception tracks how the body reacts to its environment. The brain integrates this data into rapid, unconscious assessments which we then experience as a ‘gut feeling’ or intuition.”

Plainly speaking, he states, “Intuition is often just the body thinking faster than the mind.” So, while these “extra” faculties aren’t part of the “traditional” five senses we all know, they are still deeply integrated into our nervous system. “They are fundamental to how we navigate the world, regulate our emotions and make decisions,” he notes. “That makes them every bit as important as sight or hearing.” 

The challenge now is simple: learning how to harness and make the most of them.

Why this matters now

In our high-tech world with so many distractions, we can really lose focus of our natural way of being – and Bariselli’s take is that we need to hone in on our extra senses to help turn down the noise in an overwhelmed brain.

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In his 2025 Spanish-language book, Naturaleza y neurociencia (Nature and Neuroscience), Bariselli explores how our modern habits of multitasking and information overload are physically altering our brain’s medial prefrontal cortex. This area is essential for our cognitive processing, emotion regulation, motivation and social abilities. 

Essentially, when we ignore our internal signals (interoception) and our place in the world (proprioception), we’re causing a progressive detachment from our very essence, as well as the real capacities of our brain.

Drawing from his hit Italian podcast A Wild Mind, Bariselli’s approach uses surprising experiments, scientific studies and intimate reflections to show that the path to better brain health isn’t found in a new app, but in reconnecting with the two untapped senses we’ve had all along. And importantly, he offers a science-based perspective on why we’re behaving in ways that are so detrimental both to ourselves and our planet – and what we can do to fix it.