Science Experiments | Chemosenses - Introduction

Introduction

People depend on taste and smell to recognize a delicious meal, but these senses also play a key part in survival helping keep us alive. Both senses can warn us of trouble and both are linked to what we eat. Pleasant tastes and smells ensure that a person or animal continues to eat and acquire energy from foods. Unpleasant tastes and smells are one way to ensure a person does not ingest poisons or other materials that can harm him or her.

People get information about the world around them through their senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. Each of these five senses is tuned to a specific sensation. You are always using at least one of your senses. The senses send messages to the brain, which processes the information. Taste and smell belong to the chemicalsensing system group, known as chemosensesA sense stimulated by specific chemicals that cause the sensory cell to transmit a signal to the brain., which means that the sense is stimulated by specific chemicals. These chemicals trigger a nerve signal to the brain that then "reads" the signal.