Fontanini Alfredo
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
Curr Biol. 2023 Feb 27;33(4):R130-R135. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.005.
In his book on the ecology of perception (An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden, 2022), science writer Ed Yong emphasizes the simplicity of taste. He writes: "Taste, then, is the simpler sense. As we've seen, smell covers a practically infinite selection of molecules with an indescribably vast range of characteristics, which the nervous system represents through a combinatorial code so fiendish that scientists have barely begun to crack it. Taste, by contrast, boils down to just five basic qualities in humans - salt, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami (savory) - and perhaps a few more in other animals, which are detected through a small number of receptors. And while smell can be put to complex uses - navigating the open oceans, finding prey, and coordinating herds or colonies - taste is almost always used to make binary decisions about food. Yes or no? Good or bad? Consume or spit? It's ironic that we associate taste with connoisseurship, subtlety and fine discrimination when it is among the coarsest of senses."
在科学作家埃德·扬关于感知生态学的著作《一个广阔的世界：动物感官如何揭示隐藏的事物》（2022年）中，他强调了味觉的简单性。他写道：“那么，味觉是更简单的感官。如我们所见，嗅觉能识别几乎无限多种具有难以描述的广泛特征的分子，神经系统通过一种极其复杂的组合编码来呈现这些信息，其复杂程度令科学家们几乎尚未开始破解。相比之下，人类的味觉归根结底只有五种基本味道——咸、甜、苦、酸和鲜味（美味）——其他动物可能还有几种，这些味道是通过少数几种感受器来检测的。而且，虽然嗅觉可以用于复杂的用途——在开阔海洋中导航、寻找猎物以及协调兽群或群体活动——但味觉几乎总是用于对食物做出二元决策。是或否？好或坏？吃或吐？具有讽刺意味的是，当味觉是最粗糙的感官之一时，我们却将其与鉴赏力、微妙性和精细辨别联系在一起。”
