Five tips of the senses | Science

Languages ​​can feel

Philadelphia researchers revealed last week that taste buds also carry odor-sensing proteins, challenging the idea that smell and taste come together in the brain to produce aromas. According to Dr. Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, his discoveries open the possibility of using odors to encourage us to eat healthier, for example by adding a low concentration smell to foods to make them sweeter and thus reduce sugar consumption. .

Blinded by the lights

We believe that we are all subject to a form of movement-induced blindness when we drive at night, when the red lights of the cars preceding us temporarily disappear if we turn to traffic. This phenomenon, in which the brain ignores or rejects visual information when it is placed in front of a moving background, was observed for the first time in the laboratory in 1965.

The sight and the sound

Described for the first time in 1976, the McGurk effect establishes a link between hearing and vision in the perception of speech. When the auditory component of one syllable is paired with the visual component of another, this can lead to the perception of a third sound.

A taste for cutlery

Research conducted by Oxford University in 2013 suggests that the view of cutlery and the perception of their size, weight, shape and color have an effect on how we determine the flavors, which suggests that the brain judges food even before it enters our body. mouths. Yogurt, for example, has a sweeter taste on a white spoon than on a black spoon.

Music on the menu

Various experiments show a cross in human perception between smell and sound. Researchers at Oxford University found consistency when participants were asked to badociate certain odors with musical instruments and heights: a piano smelled of fruity, while brbad had a musky odor . This phenomenon is thought to be caused by an area of ​​the brain called the olfactory tubercle, which responds to auditory and olfactory stimuli.