Learned in PSYCH101
Taste and Small (Olfactory System)
Khan Academy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-McqAO8_Qw&pp=ygUXdGFzc3RlIGFuZCBzbWVsbCBzeXN0ZW0%3D&ab_channel=khanacademymedicine
Taste (gustation) and smell (olfaction) are both chemical senses.
Big difference: Taste affect is hard-wired, Olfactory affect is learned.
Taste is simpler than olfaction. Bitter and sweet utilize GPCRs, just as olfaction does, but the number of different receptors is much smaller. For bitter, 25 receptors are tuned to different chemical structures (Meyerhof et al., 2010). Such a system allows us to sense many different poisons.
Olfaction
Two kinds of olfaction:
- orthonasal olfaction: when we smell air about the world external to our bodies.
- retronasal olfaction: When we chew and swallow food, the odorants emitted by the food are forced up behind the palate (roof of the mouth) and enter our noses from the back
Note: The brain can tell the difference between the two and does not send the input to the same areas.