How taste works is somewhat unclear, and a lot of work remains to be done in order to really figure it out. There are hints however, and we keep finding out new things. For example, this recent study suggests that carbonation - the fizzy bubbles found in many drinks - has a taste. It's not just the sensation of the bubbles popping on your tongue, it's a flavor. And that flavor? Most akin to sour.
Here's something even stranger. For years people have worked on how to restore sight to the blind. In this new technique, special sunglasses attached to a "lollipop" are used to transduce visual signals into electrical stimulation on the tongue. Users report a sensation similar to champagne bubbles on the tongue, and with some practice, can start to interpret some limited visual information.
And we're all familiar with the idea that we have certain taste receptors - including sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But there's a more recently identified taste (in addition to the new work on carbonation). There is a savory flavor called umami. It's found in soups, cheese, seafood and meat. It's a naturally occurring flavor, however a form of it (MSG) is often used as an additive in foods.
And then to end with, an essay on food and flavor by one of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan. He writes about the health value of food and agriculture and the shared history of humans and plants. And in this short article, about how we should be enjoying food, and how so much of what is sold in the supermarkets today really isn't food anymore.
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When I attended the University of Alaska Anchorage, in my anatomy lab one day we had to taste little strips of paper, there was 4 if I remember; we were to taste the paper and write down what we tasted- it was to show that not everyone tastes the same, there was one strip of paper that I tasted nothing, and everyone else in the class was practically gagging on it, but my teacher and myself were the only 2 out of 30 that could not taste anything.
ReplyDeleteThis umami reminds me of something I saw (embarrassingly enough) on the Tyra show. A berry called "Miracle Fruit" that changed the way you taste food. A member of the audience agreed to try it out and then she ate a piece of a lemon, which did not make her face pucker because it tasted sweet to her. I found an article online on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html
it's interesting, but I don't know if I would want to change my perception of reality, sounds like an oral high to me.
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think the gene you're talking about (with the taste test) is the PTC gene.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/ptc/
And, I'll have to look into the miracle berry!
I'm taking a Neurophysiology class and I asked the instructor about the "phantom smell" question that someone raised today in Human Development class. I believe that the student said her father's olfactory nerve was severed during surgery but that he experienced phantom smells. We are studying pain and pain receptors in Neurophys right now, and the mechanism by which phantom sensations of pain was explained in the textbook and in lecture. Basically, when you lose a finger, the nerves connecting to that digit will reconnect to the neighboring fingers and still send nervous signals to the brain. Thus when those nerves from the phantom digit are activated, you have the sensation of the finger even though there is no longer a finger there. I asked the professor if the phantom smell phenomenon operated the same way and he said, without hesitation, "Yes."
ReplyDeleteThis conversation led me to investigate further the vibrational theories of smell espoused by Luca Turin, because I have always found it hard to believe that we have as many receptor types as there are recognizable smells. Ultimately I landed on the webpage of this organization, which claims to have located the receptors for the umami taste. I don't know if they have published their research in any peer-reviewed journals, so take it with a grain of salt. (Pun entirely intended.) http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/umami_pr
Whoops! Sorry about the grammatical errors above. Couldn't figure out how to edit the post. And I don't know why it's listing me as "belly." My name is Dana Harmon.
ReplyDeleteI was watching soemthing on Nova Science Now about bittnerness in vegetables and that might someof the reason that kids don't like to eat their vegetables.
ReplyDeleteResearchers took a DNA swab from the cheek of children in a public school. They found that the children who reported not liking vegetables, such as brocoli, all shared a similar gene. It don't remember the name of the gene excalty.
Amber Hunt