Where do taste and smell information converge in the brain?

[gib65]

I know that taste is heavily influenced by smell, and yet we experience taste as one experience. I'm assuming, therefore, that smell and taste information must converge somewhere in the brain. Where exactly?

[Xittenn]

The sense of smell is transmitted directly to the cerebrum via the olfactory nerve. The sense of taste travels over three of the other 12 cranial nerves, but these do not go directly to the cerebrum, these go to the medula and pons. The olfactory nerve is the only nerve that connects directly to the cerebrum, where the optic nerve ganglia is situated in the diencephalon and is routed through the thalamus. The thalamus is important because it acts like a switchboard for sensory input, and the olfactory bypasses this. The pathways taken then suggests that the only place where which the two signals could be contrasted and compared is in the cerebrum.

 

I don't believe it is sufficient to say that they are companion senses as a cause of their both evoking emotional responses from the amygdala. My opinion on this would be, that in fact what we mean by 90% of our taste comes from the smell, is to say that most of what we sense from our food is in fact the smell. If one does not breath while eating the taste decreases, what in fact we are experiencing is a decrease in the use of smell in amusing our brains with our food.

[gib65]

I don't believe it is sufficient to say that they are companion senses as a cause of their both evoking emotional responses from the amygdala. My opinion on this would be, that in fact what we mean by 90% of our taste comes from the smell, is to say that most of what we sense from our food is in fact the smell. If one does not breath while eating the taste decreases, what in fact we are experiencing is a decrease in the use of smell in amusing our brains with our food.

 

So are you saying that they really don't converge in the brain (at least not at a spot that corresponds to a single experience we call "taste")? That we really experience taste and smell separately but confuse the two for one experience?

[Xittenn]

Yes! I wouldn't say confuse the two, but we experience two different systems simultaneously, and identify the combination as an experience.

 

Veldhuizen MG, Shepard TG, Wang M-F, Marks LE (2010) Coactivation of gustatory and olfactory signals in flavor perception. Chem Sens 35:121–133.

[zapatos]

Yes! I wouldn't say confuse the two, but we experience two different systems simultaneously, and identify the combination as an experience.

 

Veldhuizen MG, Shepard TG, Wang M-F, Marks LE (2010) Coactivation of gustatory and olfactory signals in flavor perception. Chem Sens 35:121–133.

Good point. Sort of like listening to a band in a bar. You hear and feel the music at the same time, but no one ever says, 'boy that music felt good!'.