Sensory Adaptation: Who cooked the bacon?

Do you smell the bacon?

Think about walking into a house after someone has been cooking. (Do I smell bacon? Insert whatever food you love to smell here) At first the smell is very strong. Did you notice that after a few moments you no longer notice the smell? That is sensory adaptation when it comes to the sense of smell. If the stimulus (smell of bacon) hasn't changed, your brain no longer pays attention to it because it (the smell of bacon) is not changing.

Another example is the sense of light. Enter a dark room after being in a brighter room. At first the room is very dark. Once your eyes adjust to the dark room you can now see a little in that room. Or think about going outside on a very bright day. At first you might partially close you eyes until your sense of sight adjust to the brightness.  This is sensory adaptation when it comes to your sense of sight.




When taking my first Anatomy and Physiology course the topic of sensory adaptation was one of my favorite topics. Since the muscular, skeletal and nervous systems where my favorite systems of the body to study I focused on how sensory adaptation applies to them.

I love to think about how sensory adaptation effects our bodies during the aging process. Those individuals that work on keeping as much muscle as possible while aging will have adapted by still being able to easily get up for their chairs, take the steps, work in the yard, etc. Those that haven't challenged their muscles as they age will be challenged by the weakness they have developed. It is all about how you adapt. Think about this: By not working on becoming stronger, more mobile, more steady on your feet, you are working on becoming weaker, less mobile and less steady on your feet.

It is all about the stimulus or lack there of that you ask your body to adapt to.

Would you rather be in her shoes

or Her's?

I have been reading a lot about how bad sitting is for our bodies. Why is sitting so bad for us. The body adapts to sitting by slowing our metabolisms down, slowing blood flow, relaxing muscles, etc.

Mayo Clinic article on why too much sitting is bad for us
"Researchers have linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels."


Two things mentioned:

                                    "A nearly 50 percent increased risk of death from any cause"
                                     "About a 125 percent increased risk of events associated with cardiovascular disease, such as chest pain (angina) or heart attack"

I don't know about you, but those two things alone make me get out of my chair more often. The bad thing about all this sitting is that one hour of exercise won't reverse all the damage done by this sitting. The key is to make sure you get up every 30 - 60 minutes each hour. Get that blood pumping, muscle contracting.

You know the phrase use it or loose it. If you ask your body to rest too much, you will loose your health.

What stimulus's are you asking your body to use it's sensory adaptation to adapt to? I know that isn't the greatest way to end a sentence.  Science was always a much stronger subject for me than English.