Chemical Senses Paper

Psy/345
May 23. 2016
Chemical Senses Paper
The Chemical senses, taste and smell, both provide information that can be determine survival. Taste will let us know whether or not we should eat something, based on the taste. Tastes are classified in five categories: sour, salty, bitter, unami, and sweet. these tastes are experienced through taste buds on the tongue. In the nose, when something is sniffed, molecules travel through the nose, and some activate responders on the olfactory epithelium. Olfaction, or the system of smelling, provides us with an alert system to dangerous odors, cues to orient ourselves, mark territory, a guide to specific places, animals, food, and in sexual reproduction for many species (pheromones). Our olfactory epithelium can be activated in as many as 10-100,000 different patterns, to recognize different odors. (Biswas, 2014) If we could not smell our test would be blander.
Taste, or the perception of flavor, is a result of the stimulation of receptors on the tongue and olfaction. Taste occurs when the chemicals of a food or beverage pass over the receptors of the tongue. At the same time, these chemicals release other chemicals that travel through the retronasal route to the nasal pharynx to the olfactory mucosa. The importance of olfaction in flavor is usually ignored, until someone loses the ability. The unawareness that flavor occurs in the nasal passages as well is an illusion that is created by oral capture.
There are many ways in which food can be made to taste better: try new textures, serve foods cold or at room temperature, prepare or purchase foods that taste good to you, try more spices and flavorings, make a shake or a smoothie, or stimulate tastes with tart flavors. If food is tasting bitter or metallic try using plastic ware, use proper oral hygiene if able, try marinating meats or consider