We use our senses of smell and taste to ensure we don’t eat harmful things. Our sense of smell can also detect other potentially dangerous substances, such as smoke or toxic chemicals. The brain processes these smells and warns the body to steer clear.
Doctors used to be able to sense when a person had a serious disease. Some people say they can sense when others are going to die.
Although researchers had studied effects on plants and animals, not much has been done in this area on humans. One reason is that it is more difficult to be subjective with human tests.
This small study may provide further scientific insights around conscious and non-conscious responses to threats. But the claimed connection between this research and humans having some type of ‘sixth sense for danger’ is as slender as a spider’s thread.
This was a highly experimental scenario and it is not clear if these findings would be representative of the general population in real-life fear situations.
Warning signal!
When fresh foods such as milk go off, the sour smell quickly lets us know. Wrinkling the nose in disgust partly blocks off unpleasant, potentially harmful odours.
Picture Credit : Google