PSYC11312 Sensation and Perception - Chemical Senses and Multisensory Integration

Flashcards covering key concepts from Professor Ellen Poliakoff's lecture on chemical senses (taste and smell), multisensory integration, and synesthesia.

What are the two 'chemical senses'?

Gustation and Olfaction

What is the primary survival value of taste and smell?

Prevent ingestion of toxins and avoid danger.

What are the core tastes?

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, and Umami.

How do taste buds function?

Each taste bud cell contains taste receptors that respond to each taste.

What causes 'sweet' taste?

Sugars (fructose, glucose, saccharose…) and artificial sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin…).

What causes 'sour' taste?

All acids (acetic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, phosphoric acid, lactic acid…).

What causes 'bitter' taste?

No unique chemical class: quinine, caffeine, peptide, phenols

What causes 'salty' taste?

Salts like table salt (NaCl), or NH4Cl, KCl

What causes 'umami' taste?

Mono sodium glutamate, Inosine 5'-monophosphate, Guanosine 5'-monophosphate

What distinguishes supertasters from others?

They have more papillae and taste buds.

What is the scientific term for 'smell'?

Olfaction

How many types of molecules can we discriminate by smell?

Up to 10,000 types of molecule.

What is the orthonasal route of smell?

Via inhalation.

What is the retronasal route of smell?

During chewing and swallowing.

How many different types of olfactory receptors do humans have?

About 350.

According to recent research, how many molecules can humans discriminate by smell?

2014 research indicates humans can discriminate 1 trillion molecules.

What is the phenomenon of vivid memories brought back by particular smells called?

The 'Proust effect'.

What two senses combine to create flavor?

Taste and Olfaction.

Besides taste and smell, what other factors influence flavor?

Texture, Pain, Sound, and Vision.

How is 'pain' involved in eating, such as with chili peppers?

Chili acts on pain receptors in the tongue.

What types of tastes can partly suppress pain from eating?

Sweet and sour liquids

How does sound affect taste?

That foods taste crunchier and fresher when the sound is amplified or the high frequencies increased.

What are three ways multisensory integration can occur?

Can allow detection of a weak stimulus in another modality, make sense of an ambiguous stimulus, and alter the quality of a stimulus.

What is ventriloquism?

Visual information influencing where in space we perceive a sound source.

In the McGurk effect, how does visual information affect sound perception?

Visual information is affecting the sound that you hear.

What is synesthesia?

Stimulation of one type leads to another perceptual experience, like seeing colored letters or tasting shapes.

What describes the phenomenon where certain shapes, sounds, or other stimuli are consistently associated across individuals, such as 'bouba' and 'kiki'?

Crossmodal correspondences