Question

What is a good thesis on what is the connection between smell and taste?

Answer 1

Flavour perception is an aggregation of auditory, taste, haptic, and smell sensory information.

Explanation:

Retronasal smell plays the biggest role in the sensation of flavours. During the process of mastication, the tongue manipulates food to release odorants. These odorants enter the nasal cavity during exhalation.

The sense of taste and smell combine at the back of the throat. When we taste something before we smell it, the smell lingers internally up to the nose causing one to smell it. Both smell and taste use chemoreceptors, which essentially means they are both sensing chemical environments.

In addition to the taste receptors, there are similar receptors with in the nose that co ordinates with activation of the taste receptors. Although humans commonly distinguish taste as one sense and smell as another they work together to create the perception of flavour.

Olfaction, taste, and trigeminal receptors together contribute to flavour. A person's perception of flavour is reduced if he or she has congested nasal passages.