For centuries, we have believed that the human brain operates through five distinct senses. We see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, and from this tapestry of perception, memory arises. Yet scientists at Skoltech in Russia suggest that our traditional model may be too narrow. Their latest mathematical analysis proposes that memory works most efficiently in a seven-dimensional space, which would be the cognitive equivalent of having seven senses. The study offers a fascinating perspective on how both human and artificial intelligence might evolve to process and retain information more effectively.
The findings, published in Scientific Reports, do not claim that humans literally possess two hidden senses. Rather, they describe how information behaves within a conceptual space, revealing that a seven-dimensional system can store the greatest number of distinct ideas or memories before overlap and confusion begin to occur.
Modeling the Mind
The team led by Professor Nikolay Brilliantov developed a mathematical framework that models memory through structures known as engrams. An engram represents a cluster of neurons that fire together when we recall or recognize something familiar. Each engram can be thought of as a point in a conceptual space, described by a set of features.
For instance, the concept of a banana can be broken down into color, texture, shape, taste, and smell. Within this model, that banana becomes a five-dimensional object existing among many others in the mental universe. The researchers asked a simple yet profound question: what happens when the brain adds more dimensions to its representation of memory? Their calculations revealed that when each memory or concept exists in a space defined by seven features, the number of distinct concepts that can be stored and retrieved reaches its maximum.
This mathematical conclusion suggests that the architecture of optimal memory, whether biological or artificial, might require seven channels of input or experience.
Beyond the Five Senses
The idea of seven senses sounds almost mystical, but the researchers are careful to frame it as a theoretical insight rather than a biological claim. Still, the implications are remarkable. If the brain could integrate new sensory modalities, such as the perception of magnetic fields or radiation, its conceptual space might expand, allowing it to store and distinguish more memories.
The team also found that their conclusion does not depend on the finer details of the model. The number seven emerged consistently as a stable feature of the system. It appears to represent an equilibrium point between the brain’s need to encode information distinctly and its limited capacity to handle complexity. This echoes the well-known psychological observation known as “the magical number seven,” a principle discovered by George Miller in the 1950s that describes how working memory often holds about seven items at once.
Although the new study approaches the question from mathematics rather than psychology, it is intriguing that both arrive at the same number.
Lessons for Artificial Intelligence
Perhaps the most immediate application of this work lies in the development of artificial intelligence and robotics. The model suggests that learning systems perform best when they gather information through roughly seven independent channels. In practice, this might mean combining visual, auditory, tactile, and spatial data with additional forms of input that capture temperature, motion, or even electromagnetic signals.
If future AI systems were designed around this seven-dimensional principle, they could potentially remember and reason in ways that mirror human cognition more closely. It would also explain why machines with limited sensory diversity often struggle to generalize knowledge or adapt to new situations. A broader range of perception may lead to deeper understanding.
The Shape of Memory
At a deeper level, this study reinforces the idea that memory is not a static storage system but a dynamic landscape shaped by perception. The more richly information is described, the more precisely it can be recalled. Just as a painter uses many colors to create depth on a canvas, the brain appears to benefit from more sensory features to give structure and meaning to experience.
This does not mean that human evolution will inevitably produce new senses, but it does hint that our current perceptual framework may not represent the full potential of cognition. Artificial systems, however, are not bound by biology and could be designed to explore this seven-sense model directly. The researchers hope their work will inspire new approaches to AI memory architecture that borrow from nature’s efficiency while surpassing its constraints.
A Wider Window into Reality
Whether or not the number seven holds true across all future models, the work from Skoltech challenges us to think differently about how we experience the world. Perhaps the richness of memory and intelligence depends not only on how much we sense, but on how many ways we can sense at once. If that is true, both the human brain and artificial minds may have only begun to glimpse the full dimensionality of perception.
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