cgs 2301 - chemical senses

chemical senses

taste and smell

mechanical senses

vision, audition, and touch

gustation (taste) function

not eating things that will kill you

order of structures

bumps (papillae) contain taste buds

taste buds house taste receptor cells

microvilli react to tastant molecules

top to bottom: taste pore, microvilli, taste receptor cell, nerve fibers

five categories of tastants

sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami

note: contrary to popular belief diff region of the tongue don’t correspond with diff tastants —> all taste receptors can detect all five basic types of taste

anatomy of papillae

front to back of mouth:

circumvallate papillae: more sensitive to bitter

foliate papillae: more sensitive to sour

fungiform papillae

fillform papillae: lot of them, don’t have any taste buds, detect texture not taste

olfaction use

smell

social behaviors and survival (if something is safe, like smell smoke or poison)

odorants dissolved by olfactory epithelium (a structure)

olfactory receptor neurons turn chemical info into info our brain can understand

olfactory receptor neurons send info to glomeruli in olfactory bulb

olfactory bulb transmits info to olfactory cortex

info goes directly from nose to brain

axons project to

long term memory

limbic system (memory, emotions)

this is why emotional memories can associate w smells

how does smell relate to social behavior?

PET scan study w hetero men, homo men, and hetero women presented with testosterone based odorant

significant activation in hypothalamus for hetero women and homo men