Neuroscientists at the University of Oklahoma have found out that taste and pain work together in the same area of the brain and have the same circuitry. They originally set out to look at how the sense of taste intersects with thermal sensation. The intersection opens up the possibility that taste messages could change how pain signals are carried in the brain. Sense of taste is complicated and has many implications for how the nervous systems handles different food preference behaviors.
Key Takeaways:
- In a study which aim was to study how taste and food temperature intersect, researchers have been able to understand how taste and pain also intersect.
- It is said that this study is the first of its kind and was discovered by accident. It was known though that taste and emotions do intersect.
- In the study to understand how taste and thermal sensations might be converging with pain the OU researchers used a molecular biology and physiology technique.
“This intersection may support a protective function and opens the possibility that taste messages could change how pain signals are transmitted in the brain, but more research is needed.”
Read more: https://neurosciencenews.com/taste-pain-pathway-10882/