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Sensory Science > Module 1 - Senses and perception > Flashcards

Module 1 - Senses and perception Flashcards

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1
Q

What are sense organs made of?

A

They are highly organized aggregations of tissues, which in turn are made up of cells.

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2
Q

What is the fundamental structural and functional unit of living systems?

A

The cell

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3
Q

What are the four principal types of tissues in the human body?

A

Epithelial tissue – Forms linings for external and internal body surfaces.

Connective tissue – Includes skin layers, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones.

Muscle tissue – Has the ability to contract.

Nerve tissue – Generates and conducts electrical signals.

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4
Q

What type of epithelial cells are most relevant to sensory perception?

A

Squamous epithelial cells, which compose the outer skin layer and line certain internal cavities.

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5
Q

What defines an organ?

A

An organ consists of at least two different types of tissue functioning together for a common purpose.

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6
Q

What are the five human sense organs and their functions?

A
  1. Eyes – Sight
  2. Ears – Hearing
  3. Nose – Smell
  4. Mouth – Taste
  5. Skin – Touch
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7
Q

What are the three stages of sensory perception?

A
  1. Sensory reception – Receptor cells detect a stimulus.
  2. Nerve transmission – Neurons transmit electrical signals to the brain.
  3. Brain processing – The brain interprets the sensory information.
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8
Q

What is the difference between taste and flavour?

A
  • Taste refers strictly to gustation (e.g., sweetness, sourness).
  • Flavour is a combination of taste, smell, and other sensory modalities.
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9
Q

What are sensory receptors?

A

Specialised cells that respond to a stimulus, the agent that generates a response.

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10
Q

What are the stimulus that sensory receptors respond to?

A
  • a mechanical action (such as pressure, felt in the sense of touch, or air pressure vibrations, as in hearing),
  • electromagnetic radiation (detection of photons of visible light by the eyes; detection of an increase of temperature in skin tissue, when exposed to radiant heat),
  • a chemical stimulus (such as the molecules or ions that generate odour, taste, or sensations of warmth or coolness in the mouth).
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11
Q

What is sensation?

A

The process of the body responding to its environment by transmitting information to the brain.

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12
Q

What is perception?

A

The conscious process of the brain selecting, organising or interpreting the response to the stimulus (such as a pain, a sound, a vision of the world around us, or a flavour).

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13
Q

What is the sense of taste sometimes called?

What is the sense of smell often called?

A
  • Gustation
  • Olfaction
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14
Q

Other than gustation and olfaction, what are some other senses important to the perception of food and wine?

A
  • texture, or the sense of touch, also known as a tactile sensation

-sensations such as pungency and coolness, now classified by the term chemesthesis

  • visual appearance, conveyed by the sense of sight
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15
Q

What are the individual sensory processes often called?

A

These individual sensory processes are often called sensory modalities.

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16
Q

What are some of the words used to describe the perception of an olfactory sensation?

A

‘Aroma’, ‘bouquet’, ‘fragrance’, ‘nose’, ‘odour’, ‘scent’, and ‘smell’.

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17
Q

With wine, what does the term ‘bouquet’ mean?

A
  • indicating the perception provided by the range of olfactory stimuli that develop in an older wine through ageing.
  • a wine that is young will have little bouquet, whereas a wine that is old may have a range of smells that were not evident in the young wine.
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18
Q

With wine, what does the term ‘aroma’ mean?

A
  • The perception provided by any individual olfactory stimulus (e.g. ‘the aroma of cineole is minty’) or by a range of olfactory stimuli (e.g. ‘the aroma of a complex Montrachet with age’).
  • Sometimes used to identify the range of stimuli that are derived from the grape or alcoholic fermentation but not from the ageing of wine. In this use, an aroma is present in a young wine, but it fades with time.
  • When used this way, it is the complement of the bouquet; the total olfactory effect of a wine is the sum of its aroma and its bouquet.
  • Used in a positive sense, to indicate pleasurable stimuli; it is less used with stimuli that are unpleasant.
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19
Q

With wine, what does the term ‘Odour’ mean?

A
  • This is a neutral term to describe the sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity are stimulated.
  • An odour may result from one stimulus or a range of stimuli; it may be pleasant or unpleasant; it may arise from the grape berry or be produced later.
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20
Q

What is an odorant?

A

The source of an odour is an odorant.

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21
Q

What is taste? What is the source of a taste?

A
  • The perception that results when taste buds in the mouth or throat respond to a stimulus.
  • The source of a taste is a tastant.
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22
Q

What is a flavour?

A

In this subject, when a perception integrates the sense of taste with other sensory modalities, it will be described as a flavour.

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23
Q

What are the chemical senses?

A

Taste, smell, and chemesthesis, which provide sensations from chemical interactions in the environment with receptor cells (chemoreceptors).

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24
Q

What is a chemosensory process?

A

The action of receptor cells, nerves, and brain processing in response to chemical stimuli.

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25
What survival roles do chemical senses play?
They stimulate appetite and help ensure safe and pleasant ingestion of food and drink.
26
Why is identifying and describing tastes and smells difficult for humans?
Because taste and smell signals are not well linked to the cerebrum, which is responsible for analytical thought.
27
Why is it difficult to separate taste and smell?
The brain localizes flavor perception to the mouth, integrating input from multiple senses.
28
How does a head cold affect taste perception
It blocks air passage to olfactory receptors, reducing the ability to perceive flavors.
29
What is multi-modal perception?
When several senses contribute to a single perception (e.g., taste and smell forming a unified flavor perception).
30
What is cross-modal perception?
When one sensory modality influences another (e.g., smell modifying taste perception).
31
What is the function of cranial nerves in taste?
They carry taste signals to the brain’s nucleus of the solitary tract.
32
What is the olfactory bulb?
A brain structure that receives input from olfactory neurons and processes smell signals.
33
What is the function of the cribriform plate?
It allows olfactory neurons to pass from the nasal cavity to the olfactory bulb.
34
Where are taste receptors located?
Primarily on the tongue, but also on the soft palate, pharynx, larynx, and epiglottis.
35
Where are olfactory and taste receptor cells located?
Olfactory cells are in the nasal cavity; taste cells are in the oral cavity.
36
How do olfactory and taste receptor cells differ?
Olfactory receptors are neurons, while taste receptors are specialized epithelial cells.
37
How do olfactory and taste nerve pathways differ?
Olfactory signals go directly to the olfactory bulb, while taste signals travel through multiple nerve pathways.
38
What are the five basic taste sensations?
A: Salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami.
39
How many odors can humans detect?
Hundreds to thousands of different odors.
40
Why do taste receptors require higher stimulus concentrations than olfactory receptors?
Because olfactory receptors can detect extremely low concentrations of volatile compounds.
41
What is the difference in sampling range between taste and smell?
Taste requires direct contact (short-range), while olfaction detects airborne molecules (long-range).
42
What types of compounds do taste and olfactory receptors detect?
Taste receptors detect non-volatile molecules (e.g., amino acids, phenolics, ions), while olfactory receptors detect volatile compounds with low molecular weight.
43
Why is flavour perception complex?
Because it involves multi-modal and cross-modal sensory interactions that integrate taste, smell, and other sensory inputs.
44
What are multi-modal and cross-modal interactions?
Multi-modal interactions involve multiple sensory modalities contributing to a single perception, while cross-modal interactions occur when one sensory modality influences another.
45
How do multiple sensory modalities contribute to flavor perception?
Flavor perception involves visual, olfactory, gustatory, chemesthetic, and textural inputs that interact to form a cohesive sensory experience.
46
How does vision influence wine tasting?
Wine color can create conscious and subconscious expectations about its taste and aroma.
47
Why do we have a richer vocabulary for visual perception than for olfaction?
The visual system has stronger links to the brain’s analytical and language-processing regions, whereas odors are typically described in relation to known sources.
48
What is chemesthesis?
A sensory system distinct from taste and olfaction, responding to chemical irritation in skin tissues, such as pungency and cooling sensations.
49
What are some examples of chemesthesis in food and wine?
Pungency from pepper or chili, cooling from menthol, warming from ethanol, and prickling from dissolved CO₂ in wine.
50
What is texture perception in food and beverages?
A tactile sensation influenced by the physical properties of substances in the mouth.
51
How is texture perceived in wine?
Through mouth movements, contributing to descriptors like ‘light’, ‘watery’, ‘viscous’, and ‘full-bodied’.
52
Where do sensory perceptions exist?
Sensory perceptions exist solely in the brain and not in the external world.
53
Why can two people perceive the same color differently?
Differences in individual perception mean that two people may experience the same stimulus differently but agree on its label due to learned associations.
54
How does this apply to aroma perception in wine?
Compounds like methoxypyrazines are not inherently herbaceous; the brain interprets their interaction with olfactory receptors as a herbaceous sensation.
55
Q: What is a detection threshold?
The lowest concentration of an odorant or tastant that a person can detect, without necessarily recognizing it.
56
What is a recognition threshold?
The concentration at which an odorant or tastant is recognized, which is higher than the detection threshold.
57
What is a difference threshold?
The minimum change in concentration needed for a person to perceive a difference.
58
What is the primary function of our sensory system?
To allow immediate and largely unconscious responses to stimuli for survival and interaction with the environment.
59
How does recognition differ from analytical perception?
Recognition is an immediate and automatic process, while analytical perception requires effort and reasoning to describe and compare sensory experiences.
60
What are the two extremes of perception interpretation?
Hedonic perception: A basic judgment of pleasure or displeasure, often the first reaction to a wine. Analytical perception: A detailed assessment of a perception’s components, intensity, and balance, requiring cognitive processing.
61
Why are sensory perceptions considered subjective?
Sensory perceptions vary among individuals due to genetic differences, experience, learning, and environmental factors.
62
How does genetic variation affect sensory perception?
People have different receptor densities, affecting their ability to detect and interpret tastes and smells. Some individuals cannot taste certain compounds like PTC, while others experience them intensely.
63
How does experience influence perception in wine tasting?
Experienced tasters may identify faults in wine (e.g., Brettanomyces) that inexperienced tasters perceive as complexity.
64
How does learning impact sensory perception?
Sensory discrimination improves with training, allowing individuals to distinguish subtle differences in taste and aroma.
65
What environmental factors influence sensory perception?
Hunger, distractions, prior exposure to tastes, and preconceived expectations all shape perception.
66
What is sensory adaptation?
A temporary decrease in receptor sensitivity to a repeated stimulus, leading to reduced perception.
67
Why is adaptation important in wine tasting?
Prolonged exposure to an aroma or taste can reduce sensitivity, making initial impressions the most accurate.
68
What is habituation?
A long-term decrease in perception due to repeated exposure, occurring in the brain rather than the sensory receptors.
69
How does habituation affect wine tasting
Wine judges tasting many samples may experience palate fatigue, making it difficult to assess wines accurately over time.
70
Why is sensory analysis challenging?
Sensory perception is subjective, influenced by genetic, experiential, and environmental factors, and can be altered by adaptation and habituation.
71
How can sensory analysis be improved?
By controlling environmental variables, training tasters, and being aware of adaptation effects during tastings.
72

Sensory Science (3 decks)

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