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taste perception

This shows a woman in a facemask and the COVID virus.

·March 2, 2026·7 min read

Why Some COVID Patients Lose Taste for Years

Scientists discover a molecular "amplifier" defect in the taste buds of long-COVID patients, explaining why some flavors disappear while others remain.

This shows the outline of a person drinking. The brain highlights the reward system.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 2, 2026·6 min read

Trick the Brain, Taste the Reward: How Expectations Rewrite Sweetness

Expectation is the secret ingredient. New neuroimaging research reveals that believing a drink contains sugar can "supercharge" the brain's reward response to artificial sweeteners.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 1, 2025·6 min read

How Chocolate’s Puckering Taste May Stimulate the Brain

Japanese researchers have uncovered how the astringent “bite” of cocoa flavanols can activate the brain—even though little of the compound enters the bloodstream. In mice, the sensation of astringency triggered sensory nerves that stimulated neurotransmitters linked to motivation, alertness, and memory.

This shows a man eating a lemon, and a brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 21, 2025·5 min read

AI Reveals Bitter Taste Receptors’ Hidden Role in Gut-Brain Health

Researchers used AlphaFold3, the latest AI-based protein modeling system, to predict the structures of all 25 known human bitter taste receptors (T2Rs). Compared with AlphaFold2, AF3 consistently generated more accurate structural predictions when benchmarked against experimentally determined data.

This shows a woman in VR goggles and food.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 28, 2025·5 min read

New Tech Lets You Taste Digital Food

Scientists have developed e-Taste, a novel technology that digitally replicates taste in virtual environments. Using chemical sensors and wireless dispensers, the system captures and transmits taste data remotely, enabling users to experience sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami flavors.

This shows a woman eating in a small cell.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·4 min read

Confined Spaces Change How We Smell and Experience Food

Researchers found that confined environments, like the International Space Station, alter the way people perceive food aromas, with emotions significantly coloring their responses. Using virtual reality to simulate space conditions, participants reported stronger smells for most aromas, except lemongrass, compared to a microgravity posture.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 30, 2024·7 min read

Sour Power: Why Some Adults Love Intense Sourness

Researchers uncovered that approximately one in eight adults enjoys intensely sour flavors, challenging the common belief that adults generally dislike sourness. This international study utilized participants from the U.S. and Italy to explore the liking patterns of sourness in adults.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 10, 2024·5 min read

How the Brain Perceives Bitter Taste

A new study sheds light on how we perceive bitter tastes, revealing the detailed structure of the TAS2R14 bitter taste receptor for the first time. By pinpointing where bitter substances bind to TAS2R14 and understanding its activation mechanism, scientists have laid the groundwork for developing treatments that could regulate taste receptors to address conditions like obesity and diabetes.

This shows a glass of wine and computer code.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 1, 2023·5 min read

Taste-Driven AI Algorithms Enhance Wine Selections

Wine apps like Vivino and Hello Vino are utilizing AI algorithms to help wine enthusiasts select the perfect bottle. Researchers have taken it a step further by incorporating people's flavor impressions into the algorithms.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 5, 2023·7 min read

A New Flavor Frontier: Is Ammonium Our Sixth Basic Taste?

The tongue’s response to ammonium chloride, a component in some candies, may indicate a sixth basic taste. The study illuminated that OTOP1, a protein receptor that signals sour taste, also responds notably to ammonium chloride.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·August 24, 2023·5 min read

The Bitter Truth: Illness, Inflammation, and the Genetic Code of Taste

A new study delves into the relationship between taste perception and immune function, focusing on the bitter taste experienced during illness. The study identified that inflammation elevates aversion to bitter tastes, a change stemming from the taste buds.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 10, 2023·3 min read

Neurological Symphony of Taste: Unraveling the Brain’s Flavor Pathways

Researchers are delving into the intricacies of taste perception and its impact on the brain. Their goal is to understand how the brain processes sensations like the sweet pleasure of a dessert or the fiery burn of a hot pepper. The team found that taste and touch sensations can stimulate the same neurons in the midbrain. This intriguing overlap hints at the brain's 'multitasking' abilities, where limited cells perform multiple functions. By exploring the interplay between taste and touch, and the emotional responses they elicit, this five-year project hopes to shed light on fundamental principles of brain organization, potentially leading to health and disease insights.