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Running head : HOW THE SENSES TASTE AND SMELL WORK
How the Senses of Taste and Smell Work Together
PSY/345
March 28, 2016
Abstract
When thinking about smell and taste, its importance to understand how each impact the other. The primary organ responsible for the sense of smell is the nasal cavity. We experience the sense of taste through our mouth. The relationship between these two senses is what help us to experience and enjoy flavor. When either sense is missing or not functioning at its full potential, a disconnect occurs. This can be detrimental as we experience life through our senses. People typically do not doubt the importance of vision and hearing, yet when speaking about the sense of smell, opinions vary. The chemical senses of smell and taste appear to have an immediate emotional impact on an individual (Wrzesniewski, McCauley, & Rozin, 1999). With this being the case, wouldn't you want to experience the world through olfaction and taste? The sense of olfaction is closely associated to the memory due to the neural connections in the brain which have a responsibility for emotion and memory.
Keywords: senses, taste, olfaction, flavor
How they Work Together
Both smell and taste are key in the way that we perceive the world. Both senses are separate senses however they work together as each have their own receptor organs. The chemicals that are in foods are detected by taste buds. Our taste buds are composed of specialized sensory cells. We taste by the papillae on the the tongue. More taste buds can be found in the back of the mouth and even on the palate. They are stimulated by sugars, acids and salts. When these cells are stimulated, signals are then sent to the brain which makes us understand the taste. Like taste buds, odorants in the nasal passage picks up molecules that are airborne. these are called odorants. The receptor proteins are stimulated and a neural response...