Smell and Taste

Sensory interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another. (ex. chemical senses interact to create the sensation of taste)

chemical, tongue

taste and small are _____ senses. The central muscle involved in taste is the ______.

Papillae

Those bumps on our tongue. They help grip food while your teeth are chewing. They also contain our taste buds.

Gustation

The sense of taste. Types of tastes include sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, and oleogustus (the taste of fat). The number of taste receptors on the tongue is related to how sensitive people are to tastes. Smoking and alcohol use diminish the sense of taste. Taste buds die but are replaced every 7-14 days. Humans have 9-10,000 taste buds each having 50-150 receptor cells.

Olfaction

smell, the sense most connected to memory, only sense that doesn’t travel to the thalamus. Chemical sense (stimulus is air-born chemicals). Hair cells (cilia)in the nasal cavity are the receptors that respond to particular chemicals. Axons of the receptors enter skull and travel to the olfactory bulb at the base of the brain. Humans have about 40 million receptors (dogs have 2 billion). Humans can detect 10,000 odors.

Pheromones

Chemical messengers that are picked up through our sense of smell (we are mostly unaware of this.

Cutaneous sense

touch, we detect mechanical energy or pressure. Receptors in the skin are responsible for providing the brain with 4 kinds of info about the environment (cold, warmth, pressure, pain.

Thermoreceptors

receptors located under the skin that respond to increases and decreases in temperature.

Pain

the sensation that warns us that damage to our bodies is occurring. It can be affected by factors such as expectation, motivation, personality, attitude, etc.

Gate control theory

developed by Melzak and Wall. The spinal cord contains a neural gate that can be opened (allowing the perception of pain) or closed (locking the perception of pain). Smaller nerve fibers = pain. Large nerve fibers = no pain

Phantom limb pain

the ability to feel sensations and even pain in a limb or limbs that no longer exist.