In good taste

Sounds (or “reads”) like many of you had a very interesting week playing Psychophysicist!

Spicy foods and this class sure do mix!  Ifeoma and Hankyu wrote about the role of adaptation and spicy food, whereas Karthik related his love of spicy food to the number of papillae he has.  And speaking of papillae counts, Tiffany counted 9, Jeff counted 19, and Katie counted a whopping 37!  Of the bunch, Katie is only the supertaster.  But, no fear!  As Neelam points out, being a nontaster (or a regular ol’ taster) has its advantages.

Preston wrote about how the first taste of something always tastes the best. Katie wrote about how artichokes make other foods taste sweet.  Brian and Reena wrote about how chemotherapy can change a person’s taste perception.

Many of you were taken by the idea of different taste categories. Brett wrote about the “myth” of how different tastes  are registered at different places on the tongue (we all know this is false now; you have receptors for each taste category all over the mouth).  Spencer wrote about the newest of the basic taste categories, umami.  Mike wrote about the taste of sour and its pucker-inducing abilities.  And speaking of sour, Sean writes about his hate for lemon-flavored skittles, but his love for lemon-flavored starbursts.

Smell and taste can lead to some pretty vivid memories; Robert talked about how the smell and taste of diet coke reminded him of a lady from church a long time ago.  This phenomenon is called the Proust Phenomenon.  Jon gave a short review of this phenomenon, and Britteny reminded us how uplifting this phenomenon can be, especially during times of turmoil.