Why Can’t You Taste When Sick? Sensory Secrets Revealed

If you don’t believe it, scientists say, there’s a simple experiment to demonstrate the point. Take a sip of your favorite drink while pinching your nose, and see what it tastes like. The special visceral afferents of the vagus nerve carry taste from the epiglottal region of the tongue. Both Chinese and Batak Toba cooking include the idea of 麻 (má or mati rasa), a tingling numbness caused by spices such as Sichuan pepper. Measuring the degree to which a substance presents one basic taste can be achieved in a subjective way by comparing its taste to a reference substance. Infants thrive when they are cuddled and attended to, but not if they are deprived of human contact (Baysinger, Plubell, & Harlow, 1973; Feldman, 2007; Haradon, Bascom, Dragomir, & Scripcaru, 1994).

‘Vivaldi smells like breakfast sausage’

• And if somebody’s sick, I am so afraid of catching COVID, because I don’t want anything to happen to the sense of smell.
• The pterygopalatine ganglia are ganglia (one on each side) of the soft palate.
• This congestion blocks the olfactory receptors and diminishes one’s ability to enjoy food fully.
• People who cannot experience pain are in serious danger of damage from wounds that others with pain would quickly notice and attend to.
• Without this feedback from our bones and muscles, we would be unable to play sports, walk, or even stand upright.

The olfactory neurons and accompanying glial cells arise outside the central nervous system but have the capacity to regenerate throughout life; it seems that progenitor neural crest cells may be their origin. Assuming that there are five basic tastes and ten levels of intensity, that means that 100,000 different flavors are possible. Taken together with the senses of touch, temperature and smell, this results in a huge number of possible taste sensations.

Introduction to Sensation and Perception

Weak Aromyx Perception Defined smells and taste are congruent with each other, and they add up to recognizable flavors. Molecular cuisine, like that practiced in Alinea, El Bulli, and other famous modernistic restaurants, is based on the combination of noncongruent ingredients that result in a new perception of flavors. You may notice the relationship between taste and smell when a cold stuffs up your nose and everything tastes bland. The real problem is that during a cold, you’re detecting only taste, rather than taste and smell combined. Taste and smell information appear to converge in several central brain regions.

For example, bats and whales use echolocation (Ek-oh-loh-KAY-shun) — a sort of sonar system — to improve their understanding of the placement of things in their environment. We humans rely on other ways to sense what’s in and around us. On the gustatory side, we have ageusia (complete loss of taste) and dysgeusia (distorted taste perception). These disorders can make eating a chore rather than a pleasure, and in severe cases, can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

As we come to the end of our exploration of the brain regions controlling taste and smell, it’s clear that these sensory experiences are far more complex than they might seem at first sniff (or taste). These two substances taste bitter to some people, but are virtually tasteless to others. Among the tasters, some are so-called “supertasters” to whom PTC and PROP are extremely bitter. The variation in sensitivity is determined by two common alleles at the TAS2R38 locus.43 This genetic variation in the ability to taste a substance has been a source of great interest to those who study genetics. Have you ever noticed how food tastes bland when you have a stuffy nose?

Human tongues are covered with 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds, and each bud contains between 50 and 100 taste receptor cells. Taste buds are activated very quickly; a salty or sweet taste that touches a taste bud for even one-tenth of a second will trigger a neural impulse (Kelling & Halpern, 1983). On average, taste buds live for about five days, after which new taste buds are created to replace them. As we get older, however, the rate of creation decreases, making us less sensitive to taste.

Let’s not forget about the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s decision-making powerhouse. When it comes to taste and smell, this region is involved in making food choices based on past experiences and current preferences. It’s what helps you decide between the grilled chicken salad and the double cheeseburger (we won’t judge either way). This almond-shaped structure is best known for its role in processing emotions, but it’s also involved in our emotional responses to tastes and smells. Ever caught a whiff of a scent that instantly transported you back to a childhood memory? The sense of smell plays a vital role in finding food, discriminating it from toxic substances, and appreciating its flavor (smell is a key component of what we commonly call “taste”-see below).

Medicines and tablets may also have a lingering aftertaste, as they can contain certain artificial flavor compounds, such as aspartame (artificial sweetener). Invertebrates’ ability to taste these compounds is fundamental to their survival and provides insights into the evolution of sensory systems. This knowledge is crucial for understanding insect behavior and has applications in pest control and pollination biology. The trigeminal nerve (cranial nerve V) provides information concerning the general texture of food as well as the taste-related sensations of peppery or hot (from spices). This leads to a build-up of potassium ions in the cell, depolarization, and neurotransmitter release.

It is still unclear how these substances activate the sweet receptors and what adaptative significance this has had. Three of the cranial nerves, the major nerves in the face and head, link the tongue to the brainstem. Information received from the taste receptors on the tongue is relayed via this pathway, eventually reaching the thalamus, which then forwards the information on to the gustatory cortex. You’ve probably seen that diagram of a tongue split into zones for five different tastes, and you may also know that scientists recently discovered a sixth one. Tastebuds detect different chemicals within our food that we recognize, like bitterness or sweetness, but that’s really just the start.

As an evolutionary survival mechanism, humans are wired to prefer sweet-tasting foods and avoid bitter substances. In the distant past, that helped us avoid poison and find food that provided energy. We’re learning more and more about what happens in the brain to allow us to taste food.