HOW THE BRAIN AFFECT HOW THINGS TASTE
Casey Stephens
Cary Academy
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to determine if the brain affects how people think
something tastes. Taste buds are very important when deciding what things taste like,
and taste buds are split up into four sections, which are bitterness, sourness, saltiness,
and sweetness. Jell-O was made numerous times, and people were asked to rate or
identify the flavor, each under a different circumstance. It was concluded that the brain
does affect the way things taste. This is because the brain and nose connects to the
taste buds, which can cause confusion in the system when presented something
misleading.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past years the sense of taste has allowed people to be able to decide whether
food is tasty or not. This has helped the food business grow on what to feed people. It
was tested to see if the brain affects how things taste. This is important to know
because if at a restaurant and the food looks bad, people are most likely to turn away,
but if it looks good people might be more willing to try it.
Figure 1-Front View of the Eye
The sense of sight is one of the most important senses. This sense is so useful because
it is involved in everyday life to design, choose, and work. Different forms of light go into
the eye forming different pictures which is what is seen. The eye focuses on light and
enables people to see, and it takes all parts of the eye to complete this. There is a black
circle in the eye that most everyone can see. That is called the pupil. The pupil changes
sizes as the amount of light changes. Around the pupil there is the iris. This is the
colored part of the eye. The iris has two muscles controlling the size of the pupil. By
monitoring the amount of light that enters the eye, these muscles can change
accordingly and make vision possible. The irises color comes from melanin. Melanin is
a dark pigment that also gives people hair and skin color. Melanin absorbs light, which
helps with the protection of the eyes. The eye is hollow but filled with a jelly fluid. Light
entering the eyes passes through the cornea first. This protects the eye. It also bends
light rays toward the center of the eye. The bending focusses the light and then the rays
pass through the pupil and eye lens. The lens is clear and flexible. Finally the rays land
on the retina. The retina forms the image, but upside down. The retina processes it then
sends it to the optic nerve which sends it to the brain. This is how people are able to
see.
Figure 2- A side view of the eye
The sense of taste is another important
sense. This sense determines whether
something tastes good or bad. Taste
receptor cells combine into groups to
make individual taste buds. The taste
buds combine to make taste papillae.
Taste buds are embedded in the
epithelium of the tongue and make
contact with the outside environment
through the taste pore. Microvilli extend
from the outer ends of the receptor cells,
Figure 3- The Taste Bud Sections of the Tongue
through the taste pore where the microvilli
get covered by mucus that lines the oral cavity. Then the taste receptor cell connects
with afferent sensory neurons which conducts info to the brain. When the conduction
gets to the brain it tells people how the food feels and tastes. There are 2000-8000 taste
buds. This process allows people to taste what is eaten.
In the past Maddie Mizelle tested to see if plugging the nose affected the taste of
something. In this experiment the subject would eat a jellybean with their nose plugged,
and the answers were recorded. It was concluded that the nose did affect the ability to
taste and was recorded on a graph. In the graph it showed that the percentage of
subjects guessing the flavor of the jelly bean with nose unplugged got 68% correct. With
the nose plugged it wade a significant difference. Only 6% go the correct answer.
Jello is one example of product that can look good, but have disgusting things in it. JellO is made of sugar, gelatin, and artificial sweeteners. Jell-O is made out of mostly
gelatin. Gelatin is made of split pork skins, pork, horses, and cattle bones. Gelatin is
prepared by different acid processes. This process extracts dried collagen hydrolysate.
This process takes several weeks. Around 300,000 tons of gelatins are produced each
year. Gelatin melts to a liquid when heated, then when cooled solidifies again. Gelatin is
used in a wide variety of products such as desserts, and cleaners, but all are at different
temperatures. As seen above Jell-O is made out of many disgusting things, yet it is one
of the most popular desserts in the whole world. Only because it looks so good, it is
eaten more.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Jell-O making packets, spoons, forks, volunteers, water, Cinnamon sticks, food coloring,
sugar, and cups were used in the experiments.
In experiment #1, Lemon Jell-O was prepared in the typical fashion, but various colors
of food color were added to disguise the flavor. Then the Jell-O was given to various
volunteers, who were asked to identify the flavor.
In experiment #2, Raspberry Jell-O was prepared, and volunteers were blindfolded, and
tasted Jell-O, to see how not seeing the color of Jell-O affects the taste.
In experiment #3, Cherry Jell-O was prepared, and volunteers were asked to taste the
Jell-O blindfolded. Then they were asked to taste the Jell-O with a cinnamon stick next
to their nose to disguise the flavor, and try identifying the flavor.
In experiment #4, Orange Jell-O was prepared, and volunteers were asked to taste the
Jell-O with eyes closed, and nose plugged. Then they were asked to identify the flavor.
In experiment #5, Lime and Lemon Jell-O was made, and volunteers tasted lemon of
Jell-O, then volunteers tasted the lime Jell-O, and then were asked to identify the
second flavor
In experiment #6, Grape Jell-O was made, with the same ingredients, but one cup was
labeled Wal-Mart brand, and the other was labeled Jell-O brand. Volunteers, tasted the
two brands, and were asked to rate each one on a scale of 1-10,
In experiment #7, Grape Jell-O was prepared, and volunteers were asked to lick one
cup, and eat the other. Then volunteers were asked to identify the flavor of each one.
In experiment #8, Flavorless Jell-O was made and food colored differently. Then the
volunteers were asked to taste the Jell-O and identify the flavor.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
100%
90%
Percent Correct (%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
PURPLE
Color of Jell-O
Figure 4- The various flavors volunteers guessed while tasting lemon Jell-O food colored differently
It was found that the color of the Jell-O did affect the flavor guessed. When
eating, people are all about the taste. Whether or not people realized, people
taste with the eyes first. People are influenced, mostly by looks and color, but if
presented a misleading color, people don’t normally know the difference. This is
because when tasting, the eyes and the taste buds have to work together, but
when presented the misleading color, the eyes think one thing while the taste
buds think another, causing it to confuse the system. This causes people to get
confused when eating a misleading food.
100%
90%
Percent Correct(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Eyes Open
Eyes Closed
Way Tasted
Figure 5- The percent of people who guessed the flavor correct when the eyes were closed and when the
eyes were open
It was found, that when people have their eyes closed, it is harder to identify the flavor.
People need their eyes to see what the food looks like, Whether or not it looks right from
experiences in the past. If a person cannot see the food it makes it harder to decide to
taste things, because people do not know what it looks like.
100%
90%
Percent Correct(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Blindfolded Test
Blindfolded with Smell Test
Tests
Figure 6-The percent of people guessed correct flavor when blindfolded and when blindfolded and a cinnamon stick near
their nose
When given Jell-O blindfolded, 70% of people guessed correctly. When blindfolded with
a cinnamon stick next to the person, only 30% guessed correctly. This is because the
smell of the cinnamon stick throws of a person’s nose, making it harder to taste without
the nose. The way the nose is connected to taste is through the chemical sensing
system and this causes the nose to affect the taste.
100%
90%
Percent correct(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Nose Plugged
Nose Unplugged
Way Tasted
Figure 7- The percent guessed correct when nose is plugged and unplugged
It was concluded that when the nose is plugged it affects how people can identify the
flavor of Jell-O. When the nose was unplugged only 70% got it correct, but when nose
plugged only 30% got it correct. Again this is because of the chemical sensing system.
This system connects the sense of taste and the sense of smell. With the sense of smell
crossed out it is harder to identify the flavor because the taste buds don’t have the
additional sense of smell to help identify the flavor.
100%
90%
Percent Correct(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Lime
Lime with Lemon Flavor Before
Flavor of Jell-O
Figure 8- Percent guessed correct when given Jell-O before another flavor
It was proven that when given Jell-O before another flavor of Jell-O it will affect how
people can identify the flavor. When given one flavor, people where able to identify it
correctly 60% of the time. When given lemon Jell-O before tasting lime only 40% could
identify the flavor. This is because when given the lemon Jell-O before the lime, people
already have a flavor in their mouth and when tasting the lime it confused the system
between two flavors.
10
9
Rate of Taste
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Jell-O
Wal-mart
Brand of Jell-O They Think IT IS
Figure 9- Ratings of Jell-O with the same brand labeled differently
It was proven that when Jell-O was made with the same ingredients and labeled
differently people assumed that the labeled general brand was better. When it was
labeled the general brand Jell-O, people rated it a 7 out of 10 on average. When given
the labeled Wal-Mart brand, people rated it a 5 out of 10. This is because, people also
taste with the eyes as proven in experiment #1. When given a misleading brand name
people are more compelled to say it tastes bad because it is not the general brand, but
when presented the general brand people were more compelled to say it tastes good
because it is the general brand.
100%
90%
Percent Correct(%)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Eat
Lick
Way of Tasting
Figure 10- Percent Correct when asked to lick then eat Jell-O
It was determined that when licking Jell-O it did not affect the percent correct by much.
When asked to eat the Jell-O 100% of the people guessed the correct, but when people
were asked to lick Jell-O only 80% of people got the correct answer. This is because
when people eat Jell-O more of it enters the mouth, and it is easier to identify because
there is more to taste. When licking Jell-O there is less to taste, and it doesn’t cover as
many of the taste buds.
Another experiment was done to see how the color of the Jell-O affects the flavor
guessed. When people tasted the flavorless Jell-O it did not fool people to think there
was a flavor. This is because although in the first experiment color affects flavor, when
there is no flavor color doesn’t matter because it is easy to identify.
CONCLUSION
It was determined that the brain does affect how people think things taste, due to all of
the systems connecting each of the senses. When preparing a meal, people want to
make it look good and smell good to encourage people to give it a shot, therefore
making more money for food involved companies. The hypothesis assumed was
correct, that the brain would affect how people think things taste. It should be tested if
the brain affects how things smell or look.
CITATIONS
Maddie Mizelle." How the Nose Affects Taste (2012): n. pag. Web
“taste bud." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Weiss, Ellen. The Sense of Sight. New York: Children's, 2009. Print.
Wikipedia contributors. "Gelatin." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The
Free Encyclopedia, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.
Weiss, Ellen. The Sense of Taste. New York: Children's, 2009. Print.
Wikipedia contributors. "Jell-O." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia, 7 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.