Seven senses: expanding the human brain’s capacity beyond traditional limits.
For centuries, we took for granted that we can process the world through five senses. But a new study suggests that this number could be the wrong limit. According to a mathematical model developed by Russian researchers, the brain could work in seven dimensions if it could process the world through seven senses.
### A brain working in seven dimensions
In Russia, a team of scientists has modeled the functioning of human memory as a multidimensional conceptual space. In this framework, each memory or concept is represented as an “engram”: a set of neurons that encode information about what we perceive, feel, or think.
They discovered that the human brain would be more efficient if these engrams were organized in seven dimensions. In simple terms, it would mean that the mind could retain and process more information if it had two additional senses beyond the five we know.
### Beyond the traditional five senses
Those are the pillars of our perception, but not the only ones possible. The Skoltech model suggests that the brain could achieve greater cognitive efficiency by adding new sensory pathways that expand the understanding of the environment.
Among the theoretical possibilities suggested by the researchers are the ability to detect energy changes in the environment, or even a perception of the Earth’s magnetic field, similar to that used by migratory birds.
### What the brain teaches artificial intelligence
The study not only challenges biological limits but also opens doors to robotics and the development of artificial intelligences more similar to human thinking.
“If we want machines capable of reasoning with the flexibility of the brain, we need to increase their number of perceptual channels,” explains Brilliantov. “Our results can be useful for designing more efficient and adaptive artificial memory architectures.”
In other words, this model suggests that the human mind is not limited by biology but by the number of sensory gateways through which it perceives the world.
