How do we perceive smell and taste?

Question

Is it a chemical reaction, electric signal(through nervous system) or something else....?

Answer 1

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Seventy to seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Taste buds allow us to perceive only bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors. It's the odor molecules from food that give us most of our taste sensation.

When you put food in your mouth, odor molecules from that food travel through the passage between your nose and mouth to olfactory receptor cells at the top of your nasal cavity, just beneath the brain and behind the bridge of the nose. If mucus in your nasal passages becomes too thick, air and odor molecules can't reach your olfactory receptor cells. Thus, your brain receives no signal identifying the odor, and everything you eat tastes much the same. You can feel the texture and temperature of the food, but no messengers can tell your brain, "This cool, milky substance is chocolate ice cream." The odor molecules remain trapped in your mouth. The pathway has been blocked off to those powerful perceivers of smell--the olfactory bulbs.

Of all our senses, smell is our most primal. Animals need the sense of smell to survive. Although a blind rat might survive, a rat without its sense of smell can't mate or find food. For humans, the sense of smell communicates many of the pleasures in life--the aroma of a pot roast in the oven, fresh-cut hay, a rose garden. Smells can also signal danger, fear, or dread.

Although our sense of smell is our most primal, it is also very complex. To identify the smell of a rose, the brain analyzes over 300 odor molecules. The average person can discriminate between 4,000 to 10,000 different odor molecules. Much is unknown about exactly how we detect and discriminate between various odors. But researchers have discovered that an odor can only be detected in liquid form. We breathe in airborne molecules that travel to and combine with receptors in nasal cells. The cilia, hairlike receptors that extend from cells inside the nose, are covered with a thin, clear mucus that dissolves odor molecules not already in vapor form. When the mucus becomes too thick, it can no longer dissolve the molecules.

Animals depend on odors secreted from their bodies to communicate. For humans, odors communicate a variety of messages, depending on the odor and the person receiving it. The aroma of a baking apple pie sends one message when someone is hungry and quite another when that person has just finished a six-course meal!

Answer 2

It is a electric signal through the taste buds present on the tongue for taste and same in nose,the signal then passes from these receoptors then passes to the brain,where it is received by various centres like taste center,smell center in the hypothallamus.
thus we identify the taste or smell.

Answer 3

Its not chemical reaction or electric signal its the nerves which is given the Duty is doing the same duty.

Answer 4

The stimuli / stimulus is fed into the hypothalamus which is the center of the central nervous system. When the hypothalamus recongizes this simulus then we now experience the sense of smell and taste.

Answer 5

we've style receptors and scent detectors. those progressed to assist us discover foodstuff. we like sugary meals, and so do many animals, through fact those tastes sign a prosperous source of carbohydrates and subsequently ability. We keep away from vegetation or animals that style bitter through fact those meals are many times, besides the certainty that no longer constantly, poisonous. through fact those receptors are genetically controlled, there is oftentimes version between individual human beings. some persons, as an occasion, discover a bitter style in specific vegetables, like broccoli, while others do no longer adventure a bitter style in any respect. subsequently some persons only do in comparison to ingesting vegetables considering they style bitter. Others who do no longer proportion an identical genes will frequently think of that persons who dislike vegetables are only spoiled brats who basically desire to consume what they desire. It seems that some human beings do carry the gene which will make some vegetables style bitter.

Answer 6

it is a combination of these
e.g PERCEPTION OF SMELL is brought about by dissolving the compound responsible for the odour in mucus which is percieved by olfactory epithelium in our nose which is relayed to the brain as electrochemical signals

Answer 7

I t is a stemulation in our brains that triggers the nerve to react to smell and taste . it tells the body how to react .

Answer 8

through a combination of multiple sensors and reactions in the body.

Answer 9

...when we can capture the secret of hearing by eyes & seeing by ears...only then.....as Norman Mclaren used to say.