Connection Between Smell, Taste, Perception, Memory, and Cognition Term Paper

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Smell and taste are intimately connected, more so than any other two senses (Bakalar, 2012). Even though the immediate sensory inputs are completely different, smell and taste inputs are processed together. Impediments to smell such as blocked sinuses can impact the ability to fully taste food. Chewing and eating also "releases volatile molecules that travel through the back of the mouth to receptors in the lining of the nasal passages," (Bakalar, 2012). Therefore, eating enhances the total sensory experience by adding inputs to the olfactory pathway that would not be present simply by sniffing something. When cognitive processes in the brain are added to the equation, the interface between smell and taste becomes even more potent. Smells and tastes have emotional and cognitive components to them that are well proven in neuroscience research. Smell creates what Shepherd (2006) calls "images…in the olfactory pathway," (p. 316). These "images" are linked with memories, even those that occurred prenatally (Bakalar, 2012). Heightened emotional states, including the sense of feeling threatened or slighted, can significantly alter one's perception of both smells and tastes (Skarlicki, et al., 2013). Therefore, foods taste their best when both smell and taste receptors are unimpeded, and when emotional states are either positive or neutral. Emotions, thoughts, memories, and sensory input are all linked in complex neural maps.

To make meals taste better, both smells and tastes can be altered. In fact, sight also has a strong bearing on food perception as appetite can be stimulated visually.

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However, the most direct means by which to make a meal taste better would be to enhance the flavors according to personal preferences. Enhancing the flavors would generally entail simultaneously enhancing aromas, but not necessarily. Some flavor enhancers, like MSG, are odorless but add a sense of flavor. Flavor is a combination of taste and smell, and not just input from the taste buds. Moreover, altering flavor alone would not make a difference if the eater had a stuffed-up nose. "Without that interplay of taste and smell, you wouldn't be able to grasp complex flavors," and would only be able to detect the most simplistic ones like sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and spicy (Koerth-Baker, 2008). Ideally, all of these flavor sensations will be balanced in the meal to create a pleasurable experience.

The alterations to the taste of food must also conform to personal likes and dislikes. Yet not all people share the same tastes or preferences in food. As Shepherd (2006) points out, "neural mechanisms contribute to food preference and food cravings." What foods one had been exposed to as a child and the memories associated with those foods are going to have a strong bearing on taste preferences. Personal preferences may be changed to favor sweet, salty, spicy, and other core flavors. Enhancing the taste of the food might also serve a….....

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