Running head: CHEMICAL SENSES 1

Chemical Senses

Timothy Brown

PSY/345

February 19, 2017

Jillian Watson-Hulum
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Abstract

Our senses are what opens the world and all the things in it to us. All our senses are

interconnected, in one way or another and some are more connected than others. The smells and

tastes we experience are connected by different factors that work together to make two senses

into one. The senses help us to perceive the things we encounter each day and our sense of

smells and tastes are an important part of our personal experience. Each of our senses performs a

specific function, but together they create our interpretation of our view of the things we

encounter.
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Chemical Senses

We have to eat to survive, and part of eating is tasting foods. Some we find delightful and

others might seem foul, but each person has their own perception of taste. Our taste is factored in

by our taste buds which detect different things like sugars, salts, and other flavors. A key part of

our tasting foods is our noses, which detect the smells of the things we are about to eat. Odorants

are drawn into the mucus membrane at the top of the inside of our nose. The membrane transmits

the information to the frontal lobe where the information is processed giving us our interpretation

of the smell. These two senses work hand in hand and complimenting each other, giving us our

ability to perceive foods and smells as a single unit.

Tasting better foods

No one likes to eat something that tastes gross or smells foul. Even foods we find are

alright to eat can always be made a little bit better by adjusting certain parts of the meal to make

it more appealing to us. Our sense of taste is directly linked to our sense of smell, and if one of

these isn’t working properly, then the foods we eat will taste much differently than what they

normally taste like. We can add many different spices and condiments to alter the flavor of the

foods we eat, but one of the biggest things we can do to alter the taste of the food is to alter the

smell. Our sense of smell is very important to our tasting foods and is often overlooked when

trying to make the foods we eat more appealing to us. The smells of foods can be one of the most

important parts in appealing to our sense of taste. By changing the smell of a food, we can alter

our personal perception of the food and make something unappealing seem inviting.

A memorable meal1

Cooking a meal is a virtual assault on the senses with a variety of smells filling the air during the

process from start to finish. Depending on the person there are different things that can make a
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meal both delightful and memorable. All of our senses, sight, sound, smell, and taste each work

together to make a complete picture for our brains to decipher and hold for years to come. A

memorable meal is one that combines the various senses into one complete picture that allows us

recall of the moment years later. The combination of the food, the sights, and sounds all work

together to make the experience both pleasurable and memorable. The people you are eating with

make the night enjoyable, and the conversation keeps the mood alive. The food provides the

senses of smell and taste with wonderful aromas and tastes that are both yummy and intoxicating

to the taste buds. The sights of the dinner provide the bright colors that stick in the mind and

appeal to the eyes. All of these things combine forces to make a meal both memorable and highly

enjoyable. Your brain takes in all of this information and uses it on many different levels to paint

a picture in your mind that may be recalled many times in the future with just the slightest hint of

a smell, taste, or sight.

Sensory elements.

We make memories all the time with the things our senses provide us when we

experience stimulation on the various levels like taste, touch, smell, and sight. Some of our most

vivid memories can be brought about by the simplest of things such as a smell. Our olfactory

senses are made up of thousands of sensors located in the mucus membrane in the upper portion

of our noses. This membrane takes in the odor molecules and distributes them to our brains

where they are processed into our own interpretation of the scent. Some scientists believe that the

reason smells bring about such vivid memories is due to the close location of the olfactory

system and the hippocampus, which is known to be one of the vital parts of the brain for

memory. This closeness of the two parts has also led scientists to believe that this is the reason

why damage to this area of the brain can cause problems with our sense and perception of smells.
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While there are many different things that go into making something memorable to us, smells

can be a major factor in the recall of memories, especially those from our youth.

The chemical senses.

Our bodies are wonderful things that use many different things to add to our perception

of the world. We receive stimulation in different ways, which is what we use to create a mental

picture that we use as our own reality of the things around us. The eyes use light as stimulation to

translate into what we see, and our ears use sound waves to hear what is going on around us. Our

sense of taste is divided into four different groups, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty that we use to

group the things we taste. The stimulation of our taste buds by the foods we eat is a fascinating

process where the molecular chemicals from the foods we eat are sensed by the taste buds, and

the information is transferred to the thalamus to be identified and perceived. The sense of smell

is stimulated by molecular chemical organisms that are picked up by our olfactory system. This

system takes in the stimulation from the things we smell and send them to the olfactory bulb

where they are sorted and distributed throughout the brain. These different chemicals that our

sense pick up on transforms our perception of the things we smell and taste providing us with a

vivid idea of the food of smell and give us the sensation of like or dislike of the chemical

organism.

Conclusion.

Our senses are both amazing and necessary for our interaction with the different stimulus

that we encounter each day. The two senses that are most linked to one another are our sense of

smell and taste. They are the main tool we use to decide whether we find something appealing,

tasty, or even gross. They work in tandem to bring us a more clear picture of what it is we are

sensing both by smell and taste. Smells are one of the biggest things that evoke memories of
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moments that have long past, and even the slightest of smells can bring back a very vivid

memory of something from our past. Tastes can bring back memories or even spark thoughts of

the past but usually tastes work in conjunction with your sense of smell. These two senses are

one of our most overlooked senses but if we lost either of these senses our life would be changed

into a much more depressing experience.

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References

Fields, H. (2012). Fragrant flashback. Retrieved from

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/fragrant-flashbacks#.WKuxnIWcHZY

Koerth-Baker, M. (2008). The Surprising Impact of Taste and Smell. Retrieved from

http://www.livescience.com/2737-surprising-impact-taste-smell.html

Savor the Moment: The Peculiar Connection Between Taste and Memory. (2015). Retrieved

from http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/learning-and-

memory/articles/2015/taste-and-memory/

Taste and smell. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-

behaving/senses-and-perception/articles/2012/taste-and-smell/

Van Beek, M. (2015). How does smell affect your taste?. Retrieved from

http://www.discoveryexpresskids.com/blog/how-does-smell-affect-your-taste