From Peter White, Cardiff, UK
In his interview, Michael Pollan says that plants have about 20 senses and “[w]e only have five or six”. That is a considerable underestimate. In addition to the traditional five senses, there are multiple senses falling under the general heading of “interoception”, including senses of heart rate, distension of various organs such as bladder and oesophagus, senses of hunger and thirst and gastric fullness, and bodily reactions that contribute to emotional sensations (4 April, p 26).
There is also the proprioceptive system, a term that covers multiple senses concerned with body movement and posture, balance, muscle force, muscle fatigue and a sense of heaviness of lifted objects. Whatever consciousness might be, you have no hope of understanding it if you neglect most of the sensory systems that feed into it.
