The journey involved in processing smell begins with cells that reside in the olfactory epithelium. (While we don’t have them, many mammals have a vomeronasal organ (VNO) to sense pheromones) Anyway, these smell cells have a lifespan of about a month, but you don’t have to learn what a magnolia flower smells like every month because the new cells are very similar to the replaced cell. This is really interesting because there are so many of these cells that express slightly different cellular components involved in detecting the chemicals of what makes a smell. Then, these cells all have a specific cell to reach out to (one of 100 billion neurons!) for the next step of processing. In other words, a new smell cell will express the same cell bits AND connect with the same neuron. People study this in part to understand potential ways to combat neurodegenerative diseases.
Like smell receptors, taste receptors also have a high turnover rate of ~10 days. Taste gets categorized into sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory/umami. The categorization of taste buds on your tongue is a myth. The concentration of taste receptors throughout the tongue can vary, but not by category, and definitely not to the extend we’re thought to believe. The mixup seems to have originated when the study indicating that some parts of the tongue were slightly more sensitive to taste got misinterpreted has having taste zones in the 1940’s. A poppy seed muffin can be tasted all throughout you mouth and you don’t have to gargle with it to get the food debris to all 5 senses of taste.
Originally posted on Instagram May 30 & 29, 2018 (2 posts)
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