How Do We Taste?

You know how babies put everything in their mouth? They’re actually exploring with taste! Thanks to our gustatory system, we can detect millions of distinct tastes through combinations of our different taste receptors, kind of like how colors are a combination of different visual receptors. It brings enjoyment to our lives and, most likely, kept our ancient ancestors from chowing down on poisonous foods. Come learn the neuroscience of taste with Alie Astrocyte. Taste the rainbow…err…the difference!

Other great videos about the gustatory system:

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[ProfessorPolitics]

This was really interesting to watch as I was enjoying a breakfast of very sweet and sugary cereal.

I remember hearing about how taste can be influenced by a whole bunch of stuff in the environment (like hearing specific music or seeing particular colors) on a Naked Scientists podcast. Although it was pretty cool to get the biology of how taste works here.

[susanmartin]

Got hungry just watching that ice cream cone! But, you didn't explain the wonderful taste of salted caramel -- sweet and salty. Nectar for the gods!! How does investing sweet (vs. salty, etc, )impact our enjoyment of the various tastes?

[lovelita]

I loved watching the video! if you could please include any scientific journals you used to create the content for the video, that would be greatly appreciated.

[andrealarrea]

Can you do a video about all the neuromechnism of pain?

[haroldpinteresque]

Wondering which component determines what taste our brain perceives...
The tasty chemical present outside the cell, binding the receptor?
Or the identity of the taste cell the receptor is embedded in?

[DaveCoenDrGM]

Yey, new episode! :D

I have a question regarding salty taste and the sodium activation mechanism you made: how would it explain lack or severely diminished salty taste sensation after using another alkali chloride? Since LiCl is quite toxic and hard to obtain I have not tried it. However, I do have a container with technical application purity (>=97.0%) KCl and it does not seem salty. There is a hint of it, but far from what I would expect.

I am not presenting it as any experiment (one sample, biased as hell to boot :P), but it made me wonder.

[bladgv]

thanks this really helped for my science project (:

[ArtFreak]

This is an oldish video and I do notice the comments talking about how important for most people the sense of smell is alongside taste to the sensory experience of food. But another one to add to the sensorium is stuff like mouthfeel/texture and temperature, that I think are worth mentioning.

Like with the latter, can't help but think about how capsaicin activates them TRPV1 receptors and trick your brain into feeling heat. Or how menthol interacts with TRPM8 to make your mouth feel cold? (Which I noticed you did bring up in the feeling episode!)

And also how actual temperature of food affects sensitivity to certain features of the food? One reason why cold drinks and ice cream have so much sugar is to compensate for reduced sensitivity to sweetness - also why warm soda or melted ice cream can be cloyingly sweet.

[scottfw]

Re: "How Do We Taste?", I don't know personally, but I've heard that dragons find us to be crunchy and to taste good with ketchup.

[ramshasislamicstation]

your video was extremely cool and helped me understand many concepts. thank u so much for this video. i had a doubt and wld be really more thankful if u help me with it. is primary gustatory cortex located adjacent to sylvian fissure?? i m not understanding the location of this cortex please help me. and one more question - is this cortex also called opercular insular area??

[susanmartin]

Don't know how that word 'investing' ]got into my comment below. meant, I guess... 'How does INJESTING a 'salty-sweet' affect enjoyment??

[mrmarshallck]

What about if I taste it blindfold too..👍

[timothybucky]

all of the action is with an interplay with smell without smell you would have a terrible time enjoying your flavor.

[thagish]

Why I can't taste anything when my nose is congested?

[quicksilver]

Idk how we taste, but it's probably not good...

[mrmarshallck]

Hello beautiful 🌹😘what if i stop my nose up will it taste the same... 2019.. Yummy..😘