How Smell, Taste & Pheromone-Like Chemicals Control You
from Huberman Lab
by Scicomm Media
Published: Mon Jun 21 2021
Show Notes
This episode explains how we sense chemicals through smell, taste, and pheromones. How things smell and taste and chemicals in the tears, breath, and on the skin of others have a profound effect on how we feel, what we do, and our hormones. I explain the 3 types of responses to smell, the 5 types of tastes, the possible existence of sixth taste sense, and how the act of sniffing can make us learn and focus better. I explain how smell and taste reflect brain health and can assess and even promote brain regeneration. I discuss how eating specific categories of foods makes us crave more of those foods, including how to make sour things taste sweet and develop a heightened sense of smell and taste.
Read the full show notes for this episode at hubermanlab.com.
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Timestamps
Introduction
Sensing Chemicals: Smell, Taste & Chemicals That People Make To Control Each Other
Vision Protocols Recap (Brief) & Correction
Color Vision: Excellent Resource: What is Color? (The Book)
How We Sense Chemicals: Enter Our Nose, Mouth, Eyes, Skin
The Chemicals From Other People’s Tears Lower Testosterone & Libido
SMELL: Sniffing, A Piece of Your Brain In Your Nose, 3 Responses To Smells
Smells & Memory: Why They Are So Powerfully Associated
Pheromone Effects: Spontaneous Miscarriage, Males & Timing Female Puberty
Sniffing Creates Alertness & If Done Properly Can Help You Focus & Learn Better
Protocol 1: Sniffing (Nothing) 10-15X Enhances Your Ability to Smell & Taste
Smelling Salts, Ammonia & Adrenaline
How You Can Become A Human Scent Hound, Detecting Cancer, & Tasting Better
Smell As A Readout Of Brain Health & Longevity; Regaining Lost Sense Of Smell
Dopamine, Sense Of Smell, New Neurons & New Relationships
Why Brain Injury Causes Loss Of Smell; Using Smell To Gauge & Speed Recovery
Using Smell To Immediately Becoming Physically Stronger
Smelling In Our Dreams, Active Sniffing In Sleep, Sniffing As a Sign Of Consciousness
Mint Scents Create Alertness By Activating Broad Wake-Up Pathways
Protocol 2 Pleasant Or Putrid: The Microwave Popcorn Test, Cilantro, Asparagus, Musk
Skunks, Costello, All Quiet On The Western Front
TASTE: Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Umami, Sour; Your Tongue, Gustatory Nerve, NST, Cortex
Energy, Electrolytes, Poisons, Gagging, Amino Acid & Fatty Acid Sensing, Fermentation
Our 6th Sense of Taste: FAT Sensing
Gut-Brain: Your Mouth As An Extension Of Your Gut; Burned Mouth & Regeneration
Protocol 3: Learn To Be A Super-Taster By Top-Down Behavioral Plasticity
The Umami-Sweet Distinction: Tigers Versus Pandas
Eating More Plants Versus Eating More Meat, Cravings & Desire
Food That Makes You Feel Good Or Bad: Taste Receptors On Our Testes Or Ovaries
Biological Basis For The Sensuality of Umami and Sweet Foods
Appetitive & Aversive Sensing: Touching Certain Surfaces, Tasting Certain Foods
Amino Acids Are Key To Life, The Maillard Reaction, Smell-Taste Merge, Food Texture
How Processed Food Make You Crave More Processed Foods
Protocol 4: Invert Your Sense of Sweet & Sour: Miracle Fruit; Swapping Bitter & Sweet
Pheromones, Desire To Continue Mating: Coolidge Effect Occurs In Males & Females
Do Women Influence Each Others Menstrual Cycles?
Recognizing the Smell Of Your Romantic Partner
Differences In Odor Detection Ability, Effects Of Hormones
We Rub The Chemicals Of Others On Our Eyes and Skin, Bunting Behavior
Summary