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Severe head traumas in humans can lead to various stages of so-called disorders of consciousness (DoC). These are states in which consciousness is either partly or entirely absent, such as a coma; unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, also known as a vegetative state; and minimally conscious state. Researchers recently carried out a study investigating the responses of patients in a coma or vegetative state to smells, to understand whether they could be used to evaluate consciousness. As part of their study, the researchers evaluated the responses of 28 patients at different stages of DoC to olfactory stimuli. Out of these patients, 13...

On the left is a baby happily responding to the sweet taste of carrot and on the right is a baby grimacing at the bitter taste of kaleFETAP (Fetal Taste Preferences) Study, Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab, Durham University An extraordinary new study has recorded the first evidence of babies in the womb reacting to flavors of foods eaten by their mothers. The stunning images show fetuses crumpling up their faces in disgust minutes after a mother consumes bitter kale or smiling with glee in the presence of sweet carrot flavors. Anecdotally, most mothers will tell you their babies were...

Christmas could rightly be called the holiday of the senses. It is the season of lights and tinsel, choirs and carols, the aroma of pine and roasting chestnuts. Christmas comes to us with sumptuous meals, hearty laughter, and kisses beneath the mistletoe. Christmas scenes — by the old masters and by modern advertisers — decorate the walls of museums, billboards on the roadside, and cards in the mailbox. For nearly 2,000 years, the world has marked the birth of Jesus Christ as its most festive jubilee. No other day of the year offers the world so many earthly pleasures. But...

I have found myself in recent years insisting that people believe their ears and not their eyes.Now our flesh demands to see by its own unregenerate power, only then will the flesh say it believes. But the truth is, our flesh does not often believe even when it sees. We usually figure, “they have some way of doing that” or perhaps we’ll say, “This is a trick, an illusion.” And illusionist can do some pretty amazing stuff! (See the video below).But the Scriptures are clear to say that Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom...

Medical Columnist Mark Roberts look at our five senses, how they work and their importance...."What's that smell?"

Protein splits carbon dioxide to give fizz its flavor The light, sparkly fizz of champagne owes its taste to the tongue’s sense of sour. New studies in mice reveal how the tongue tastes carbonation, solving an old puzzle of why some mountain climbers get the “champagne blues.” Tasting fizz begins with a special protein that’s tethered to sour-sensing taste cells on the tongue, researchers report in the Oct. 16 Science. This protein, the enzyme carbonic anhydrase 4, splits carbon dioxide into bicarbonate ions and free protons, which stimulate the sour-sensing cells. Scientists have long thought that the taste of carbonated...

We all link music and art, but only a tiny minority of us is aware of the crossover of senses in our brains, according to a UCL (University College London) neuroscientist, speaking today at the BA Festival of Science. New research has found that vision and hearing are inextricably interlinked in everyone’s brain, but only synaesthetes, who have a rare condition in which the senses mingle, are conscious of it. The results show that most of us prefer image and sound combined, rather than either in isolation. We also tend to agree on which images match particular sounds. This could...