Smell Affects Gustation

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Abstract. It is widely believed that olfaction directly affects gustation due to the close proximity of the two sensory areas. The two senses have been studied repeatedly to determine how and where they interconnect. This research was performed to test the effect of smell on taste.

I. Introduction
The incessant inquiry of how smell affects taste has been a prominent question for many renowned sensory system investigators. The frequented question is “how” smell transfers to the brain as taste.
The tongue has five taste sensations: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The tongue is inherently able to detect these five tastes without the assistance of smell to dictate a precise flavor. However, without the interconnections between taste and …show more content…
The ability to detect the correct flavor should be more favorable with the use of olfaction than with inhibited smelling.

III. Results
The results of this experiment support the original hypothesis that smell affects taste. By inhibiting olfaction, this investigation demonstrated that gustation accuracy was restricted. As is evident in Figure 1, the majority of the subjects answered incorrectly with olfaction inhibited, with a few outliers that answered correctly. The higher percentage of subjects were then able to test the correct flavor with their noses unplugged, thus supporting the conjecture that olfaction affects gustation.
IV. Figures Figure 1: There is an evident amount of incorrect responses when the nose is plugged, versus an increased amount of correct responses when the nose is not …show more content…
It was hypothesized that if olfaction were hindered, then the effectiveness of gustation would decrease. This has been supported thoroughly with the results of the experiment. By plugging the nose, this sensory organ is not used, thus not allowing for the mixture of olfaction and gustation to determine an intricate flavor. With olfaction inhibited, the tongue is only able to discern the five taste sensations, limiting guesses to either sour or sweet. There are two sour flavors, lemon and orange, as well as two sweet, strawberry and cherry. However, without the ability to smell, the subject’s response has a fifty percent chance of accuracy, assuming that they could differentiate between sweet and
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