ELi5: How do we remember taste of things from years ago? Do our taste buds have memory?
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Your brain is what has the memory.
All of your senses come from various types of sensors in your body sending signals to your brain.
Eg Sight – when you remember how something looks, that doesn’t mean your actual eyeballs have memory, right? Your eyes were detecting light and sending electric signals along your optic nerve to the brain, which is what actually does the “seeing”, and the remembering of what you’ve seen.
Eg smell – You can remember how something smells. Does that mean your nose has memory? No – when you smell something, that means particles of the thing have entered your nose, triggered smell-receptors in there, which then sent an electric signal to your brain, which then registered the smell (and made a memory of it).
Taste works the same way, just replace “smell receptors in your nose” with “taste receptors on your tongue”. Your taste buds don’t “have memory”, they’re just detectors that go off when something stimulates them. That signal they produce goes along nerves to your brain and registers as a taste. **Your sense of taste is your brain telling you what taste signals are** ***currently*** **coming from your tongue, and your memory of tastes is your brain telling you what taste signals** ***were*** **coming from your tongue.**
Memories are formed and stored in the brain, whether you’re remembering a fact like who invented the airplane or a previous experience or sensation.
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