what exactly is taste? Just like vibration or light, what does a thing have or lack to determine taste and how do we process it?

Question

what exactly is taste? Just like vibration or light, what does a thing have or lack to determine taste and how do we process it?

In: 111

Answer 1

Tastes are the result of chemical reactions that introduce ion (or lone electron) migration of one sort or another, and thus make electrical signals. For example, sour is the taste we recognize from acidity: the introduction of acid (H+) causes chemical changes in certain receptors that cause migration of electrochemical (nerve) signals.

The exact chemistry varies of course depending on the particular taste, and the brain does interpretation of the wide amount of electrochemical signals it receives from the various receptors, but the basic idea is that taste is the result of chemical interactions on the surface of the tongue. The brain also considers inputs from our smell detection system, so not usually just “taste”, really more a complex mix of smell and taste.