Final answer:
Hearing is the sense that is usually present until death occurs. While all senses deteriorate with age, hearing tends to be the most robust until very late in life. Hearing enables us to detect vibrations through our ear, and its mechanism is well-studied and generally resistant to complete loss.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sense that is usually present until death occurs is hearing. Our senses provide information about our body and the environment. Among them, hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell help us to interact and adapt to the world around us. As we age, all of our senses tend to deteriorate, but the consensus among scientists and medical professionals is that our sense of hearing tends to remain comparatively robust until very late in life.
Hearing, also known as audition, allows us to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through our ear. The way our nervous system processes these sounds is quite remarkable, and among our sensory abilities, hearing and sight are the most researched. As we age, the sensitivity of our senses often decreases, but hearing is less likely to disappear entirely compared to other senses such as taste and smell, which can diminish significantly with age or due to certain health conditions.
Senses such as taste, known as gustation, and smell, known as olfaction, are chemical senses that involve binding of molecules to specific receptors in the body, which can be more susceptible to compromise as we age. Our body and general senses, including touch, temperature, pain, pressure, and vibration (somatosensation), also rely on a variety of receptors throughout the skin and tissues. While sensory decline is common with aging, many elderly individuals retain some level of hearing that allows them to continue to perceive their environment auditorily until the end of life.