How do the sense of smell and the sense of taste work together to perceive flavors in food?

The sense of taste and smell work together to allow us to perceive flavors in food. Taste refers to the basic flavors detected by the tongue: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). Smell, on the other hand, refers to the complex aromas detected by the nose.

When we eat food, the flavors are first detected by the taste buds on our tongue. These taste buds detect the basic flavors of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. But the experience of flavor is not limited to these five basic tastes. In fact, the majority of what we perceive as flavor comes from the sense of smell.

As we chew food, the aromas are released and travel through the back of the throat to the olfactory epithelium, a patch of tissue located in the upper part of the nasal cavity. The olfactory epithelium contains receptor cells that detect different types of odor molecules. These receptor cells send signals to the brain, which combines the signals from the taste buds and the olfactory receptor cells to create a perception of flavor.