Gustatory perception

Question 1

Process - Gustatory

Answer 1

Before sensation, when chewing our saliva breaks down food into tastants, sensory stimuli received as chemical molecules that can be tasted
Tastants are received by taste buds
Tastants are converted into a form that is sent to the brain as a neural impulse that gives information about the type and intensity of flavor to the primary gustatory cortex (in parietal lobe)

Question 2

gustatory perception

Answer 2

Process of becoming consciously aware of flavor
Sensation of flavor requires processing from the olfactory cortex for sense of smell, also requires information from food texture using the somatosensory cortex

Question 3

What is schema?

Answer 3

Collection of basic knowledge about a concept or stimuli
-stored in memory

Question 4

Age (Gustatory, biological factor)

Answer 4

• Taste bud regeneration (time between regeneration gets longer as you age)
• Super-tasters, normal tasters and non-tasters

Question 5

Illness (Gustatory, biological factor)

Answer 5

• Sense of smell influences taste
• Change in taste can be considered a medical condition

Question 6

Pregnancy (Gustatory, biological factor)

Answer 6

Biological changes in taste during pregnancy

Question 7

Past experience (Gustatory, psychological factor)

Answer 7

If we have been exposed to a particular recipe growing up, we may base our perception of other recipes on our experience

Question 8

Emotion (Gustatory, psychological factor)

Answer 8

Past feelings of happiness that are associated with a certain dish can influence taste

Question 9

Appearance (Gustatory, psychological factor)

Answer 9

Demonstrates that the primary visual cortex has a part in the perception in taste

Question 10

Food culture (Gustatory, social factor)

Answer 10

Values of food with which we are raised, largely shaped by history

Question 11

Super-tasters

Answer 11

Higher level of papillae than average, higher sensitivity to taste
- 25% of population

Question 12

Non-taster

Answer 12

Lower number of papillae than average, decreased sensitivity
- 25% of population

Question 13

Miraculin

Answer 13

• A protein found in a west Africa berry’s pulp
• works by binding to sweet receptors in papillae, if the PH is natural the effect will not occur, but if the PH lvl lowers by acidic flavors, it causes the miraculin to change chemical state, making sour into sweet.