Sensory survey

Tastes and colours (brain and eyes)

Would you be prepared to bite into a blue apple or yellow steak? Probably not and that's to be expected. In fact, the brain associates a food's taste with its colour. For an apple, it associates green with astringent and acid, yellow with sugar.

Hands-on approach (brain and hand)

Touch also plays a role in our perception of food. Combined with sight, it helps you decide whether or not a product seems edible. Touching and looking at it calls on your memory. By comparing it to what you're familiar with, you decide whether or not to risk eating it.

An educated nose (brain and noz)

Your nose identifies odours which your brain then learns one after the other. Over time, the brain becomes capable of identifying 3,000 to 15,000 odours. There is no such as thing as a nice or unpleasant smell. You flare your nostrils or pinch your nose depending on a thousand factors such as your upbringing, experiences, memories and emotions.

Tasty sounds! (brain and ears)

Your ear also picks up sounds which your mouth makes when you chew, salivate, chomp, suck, etc. Crusty, bubbly or crunchy, the sound vibrations transmitted to the hearing by the jaw bone tell your brain about the food in your mouth and even that which is on its way...

Baby knows best! (brain and mouth)

ll over the world, babies smile when they taste something sweet or grimace and turn their heads away if its bitter. Breast milk contains 85% carbohydrates (sugar), which is essential to the newborn child's development. If baby balks at bitter, this is no doubt an instinctive reaction to a food which could be bad for it. Clever little things!

What a nerve! (brain and nerves)

You are the lucky owner of a nerve which is essential for enjoying the many sensations offered by food. It is called the "trigeminal" and there is one on each side of your face. This nerve runs behind the eyes, nose and under the mouth in order to transmit sharp (mustard), astringent (grape seeds, pineapple), refreshing (mint) and hot (chilli) sensations. These are all "trigeminal" sensations.