Question

Why is it easier to name a taste in a food than a smell in the environment?

Answer 1

The senses of taste and smell are related in humans as they use same type of receptors and are stimulated in response to chemical substances present in the environment. The taste receptors clustered in taste buds are found on the surface of epithelial papillae and each taste bud can provide four basic primary taste sensation detected by humans which comprised of sweet, salty, bitter and sour. In addition to this a special type of savory taste sensation comes from umami. These taste sensation are perceived by either direct depolarization of sodium ions or are coupled with certain G-protein receptors. In case of olfaction, odors which come from molecules in the air that we breathe stimulate olfactory receptors present in olfactory epithelium of nose. The odor that we perceived may not produce stimulation if the substance does not release chemicals into the air from its suface. The other possibility could be that human may lack receptors that recognizes a specific molecule, then the smell cannot be perceived from the odor. Humans have about 400 olfactory receptors that work in various combination to sense and distinguish nearly one trillion different odors. So this number is quite large to able to sense, detect and distinguish a particular odor by a specific olfactory receptor, whereas in contrast to gustation, there are only five primary tastes and each taste has only one corresponding type of receptor, so it is easier to perceive the taste and name it in a food rather a smell in the environment.