This suggests that the interaction between smell and taste, the main components of food flavor, may start on the tongue rather than in the brain as previously thought.
In fact, the distinctive flavor of most foods and beverages comes from smell rather than taste.
Detects sweet, salty, sour, bitter and salty molecules on the tongue, acting as a gatekeeper to assess the nutritional value and potential toxicity of what we put in our mouths.
Scientists have just discovered the special ability of the human tongue.
Smell provides detailed information about the quality of food flavors, for example, how strong the smell of chocolate, banana or coffee is. The brain combines input from taste, smell, and other senses to create a sense of taste for humans.
Until now, taste and smell were considered completely separate systems that did not interact until the information gathered reached the brain.
Dr. Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, noticed this when his 12-year-old son asked if snakes open their tongues so they can smell.
Using genetic and biochemical methods to examine taste cells, the researchers discovered something peculiar.
Researchers have shown that taste cells respond to odor molecules in a similar way to odor receptor cells.
This suggests that odor receptors may play a role in the taste system by interacting with taste receptor cells on the tongue.
Other experiments by scientists have shown that a single taste cell can contain both taste and olfactory receptors.
Dr Ozdener said: “Our study may help explain how odor molecules regulate taste perception. This could lead to the development of odor-based taste modifiers that could help combat taste Excess salt, sugar and fat are linked to diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
The presence of odor and taste receptors in the same cell provides us with an exciting opportunity to study the interaction between odor and taste stimuli on the tongue.”