4.4 Tasting, Smelling, and Touching – Introduction to Psychology

Tags

Top Highlights

• massage activates the large nerve fibers that block the pain signals of the small nerve fibers

• When an odor receptor is stimulated, the membrane sends neural messages up the olfactory nerve to the brain

• 4.4 Tasting, Smelling, and Touching

• Tasting

• sweet, salty, sour, bitter, piquancy (spicy), and umami (savory).

• meaty taste associated with meats, cheeses, soy, seaweed, and mushrooms, and particularly found in monosodium glutamate (MSG)

• a popular flavor enhancer

• taste buds

• designed to sense chemicals in the mouth.

• Human tongues are covered with 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds, and each bud contains between 50 and 100 taste receptor cells.

• Smelling

• olfactory receptor cells

• topped with tentacle-like protrusions that contain receptor proteins.

• We have approximately 1,000 types of odor receptor cells

• and it is estimated that we can detect 10,000 different odors

• Touching

• Touch communicates warmth, caring, and support, and is an essential part of the enjoyment we gain from our social interactions with close others

• skin

• largest organ in the body, is the sensory organ for touch

• Pressure, hot, cold, and pain