Sixth Sense Cannot Be Escaped; Study Shows

One cannot run away from their sixth sense. Not like the movie that a person can see a ghost, experts determines another sense, aside from hearing, tasting, seeing, smelling and touching. The newly discovered sense is within our genes the whole time. Experts now explore of what humans can benefit from this extra sense.

The study was implemented from the influence of the two young patients which suffers from a rare neurological disorder which causes them to have a difficulty in walking, deformities of fingers and hips as well as scoliosis thus, researcher's calls it "gene mutation." The team from National Institute of Health conducted an experiment to help them understand the gene and how it affects the human.

A pediatric neurologist from NIH, which specialize genetic illness for young people, Carsten Bönnemann led the study. In a series of experiment, it shows that both patients lack coordination and could not feel objects physically touching their skin walk.

The patients were blindfolded then were asked to walk. The result shows that they stumble and fell. But when the blindfold was removed the patients walk normally. The researchers also tried to move the arms of the patients while being blindfolded and ask where the direction is. The patients were not able to determine where their hands are going but when the blindfold was remove they were able to correctly determine, according to Live Science.  

As a result, the experts concluded that the patients lack proprioception. Bönnemann shared that "Healthy individuals rely on the sense to perform a variety of tasks like playing the piano, shifting gears in a car, or typing on a keyboard. Doing these things requires awareness of one's limbs in space. The patients lacked this instinctual awareness but were able to largely compensate for it by watching their limbs," as reported by Science Magazine.

Proprioception, the so-called sixth sense enables the brain to understand where your body is in space. It cannot be understood in terms of normal perception. The sense is unlikely, for it is not a feeling but more of a gene driven process.

However, the study is very small Bönnemann says that the new discovery can give awareness of the genes role in the general population. He added that both physical and genetic signature has been identified. Further research can help them locate more people with this disorder. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, according to International Business Times.