Taste {taste, sense} {gustation} detects chemicals dissolved in water, using molecule electrochemical reactions and shape, acidity, and polarity. Taste molecules are below 200 molecular weight and include ions, hydrogen ions, hydroxide ions, and sugars. Taste is a synthetic sense, with some analysis.
physical properties
Tastable molecules include hydrogen ions, hydroxide ions, salt ions, and sugars, which are water-soluble and have molecular weights less than 200. Water-soluble molecules vary in size, shape, chemical sites, acidity, and ionicity. Water-soluble chemicals vary in concentration. Tastable molecules attach to tongue chemical receptors.
types
Taste types are sweet, salt, sour, and bitter.
Sweet is not acid, salt, or base. Salt is neutral. Sour is acid. Bitter is base.
Sweet is non-polar. Salt, sour, and bitter are polar.
Sour acid and salt are similar. Bitter base and salt are similar. Sweet and salt are similar.
Sour acid and bitter base are opposites. Sour acid and sweet are opposites. Salt and sweet are opposites.
Taste has same physical properties, and taste processes are similar, so taste perceptions are similar, for all undamaged people. Tastes relate in only one consistent and complete way. Tastes are not symmetric, so tastes have unique relations. Tastes cannot substitute. Tastes have specific sense qualities and so can never switch to other tastes. Newborns can detect sweet as pleasant and bitter as aversive.
Perhaps, the first taste was a food or poison sign.
mixing
Bitter and sweet can mix. Bitter and salt can mix. Salt and sour can mix. Tastes do not mix to make new tastes.
properties
Taste habituates quickly. Taste is in real time, with a half-second delay. Temperature affects taste, so sweets taste less sweet when warm than when cold. Taste has early, middle, and late sensations.
Sour acid and salt are similar. Bitter and salt are similar. Sweet and salt are similar.
Sour (acid) and bitter (base) are opposites. Sweet (neutral) and sour (acid) are opposites. Salt and sweet are opposites.
source location
Taste can detect source location. Taste can detect several sources from one location.
Taste has few spatial affects. However, taste can have interference from more than one source.
evolution
Perhaps, salt receptors evolved because animals need sodium and need associated chloride.
Perhaps, sour receptors evolved to detect food or dangerous acidic conditions.
Perhaps, sweet receptors evolved to detect sugar nutrients.
Perhaps, bitter receptors evolved to detect poisons.
development
Newborns do not taste salt, but babies soon can taste it, and they like it.
Newborns can taste sour. Children like sour taste.
Newborns can taste sweet and think it pleasant.
Babies can taste bitter and think it aversive.
relations to other senses
Taste and retronasal-area smell can combine to make flavor. Odors affect taste receptors. Taste has higher concentration than smell. Taste has water as solvent, not air. Taste has few spatial affects. Taste molecules can have polarization. Taste and smell can have interference from more than one source. Both taste and smell are often silent. Taste and smell have early, middle, and late sensations. Taste does not use vibrations, but smell can use vibrations.
Taste is at tongue surface and so has touch. Texture affects taste. Touch can feel solutions on tongue and react to noxious tastes. Touch locates tongue taste receptors.
Taste seems unrelated to hearing and vision.
effects
Sour makes people's lips pucker, sometimes downward.
Bitter makes people's eyes and nose change.
Salt is alerting.
Savory is less alerting.
Sweet is calming.
Consciousness>Consciousness>Sense>Taste
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Date Modified: 2022.0224