Psychology 2015A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Lingual Papilla, Taste Bud, Chorda Tympani

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2015A/B
• Professor: Richard Brown

Document Summary

Smell involves taking molecules into your body one of the properties that distinguishes it from other senses. Smell = olfaction / taste = molecule detectors. Because the stimuli responsible for tasting and smelling are taken into the body, these senses are often seen as gatekeepers that: Identify things that the body needs for survival and that should therefore be consumed. 1: detect things that would be bad for the body and that should therefore be rejected. Aided by a large affective (emotional) component things that are bad for us often taste/smell unpleasant, and things that are good usually taste/smell good. Smelling an odor associated with a past place or event can trigger memories, which in turn may create emotional reactions. Receptors undergo a cycle of birth, development, and death over 5-7 weeks for olfactory receptors and 1-2 weeks for taste receptors. This constant renewal of receptors is called neurogenesis.