How is spiciness processed by the body? how can one pepper be so much “hotter” than another? why does the taste produce a burning sensation?
In: Biology
Each taste bud in your tongue is covered with loads of receptors, but the receptors don’t just sense tastes. There are receptors for texture, temperature, temperature changes, and chemical damage etc. There are many different receptors to enable us to sense many different stimuli and many of the receptors can be activated by more than one thing. (Imagine a lock that is built to open to a couple of different keys without knowing what the keys might be shaped like).
One receptor is the VR1 receptor. It seems to primarily be geared toward damage to help us protect our tongue. It can be activated by acid or high temperatures, and when it is activated our brains interpret is as burning pain. As a fluke, peppers have a chemical in them which binds to the VR1 receptor. Because this receptor is made for sensing damage, your brain can only interpret the signals it sends as damage.
But capsaicin is not damaging the receptor just by binding to it. The reason someone becomes desensitized to capsaicin over prolonged exposure is because the receptor stops responding to it as much, so more capsaicin is needed to get the message through.
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