Eli5: What happens to our tastebuds when we eat something sour or spicy, how does it let our brain know

Question

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In: 4

Answer 1

Generally the way senses work is through receptors. A receptor “receives” a signal, that signal goes to your brain, and your brain interprets is.

When you eat something that binds to the “sour” receptors on your tongue, those receptors activate, send a signal to your brain, and your brain goes “That’ signal means it’s sour” and it tastes sour to you

Remember, nothing in reality is “inherently” sweet, sour, or red, or blue, or hot or cold, or any attribute we apply to things based on our sense. That’s just how our brains interpret them. An alien could have a brain that, when presented with the signal our brains turn into “red”, turns it into “blue”, and everything we see as red, they would see as blue. The object has no “actual” color in reality, it is just absorbing and reflecting different wavelengths of light and the brain of the observer determines what those reflected wavelengths look like to them.