Human Senses: Knowing What I Didn’t Know

Film: (Smell and Taste Documentary) Human Senses

Knowing What I Didn’t Know

            My friends always say that I’m a sucker for useless information—a walking encyclopedia at worst; but then, compared to the body of knowledge out there that I still cannot grasp fully, I’m hardly a trivia-trashcan.

This idea hit me fully in the gut as I watch the documentary Human Senses. I realized, “I’m hardly a knowledgeable person…I don’t know that!”

For starters, I know sharks are supposed to be the “garbage can” of the sea, and that they can’t swim back (except for the computer-generated-very-agitated sharks of the film Deep Blue Sea) and that they have commensalism relationships with small fishes. Plus, I’m also very well aware of how much they like their meat as well as how they can smell from afar a single drop of blood in the water. But never—repeat never—was I made to be aware that sharks don’t like my favorite meat—the chicken.

Watching the documentary, I also realized that humans have very different taste preference than that of animals; such that of the shark not having a taste for chicken.

Furthermore, another example of this explicit but easily disregarded fact is that of the koala. Koalas, for me, are one of the cutest animals I’ve ever laid my eyes on since I was a child and deeply in love with stuffed bears and dogs. And because I love them, I made it a point to know what they love—the eucalyptus. This fact, a lot of people know since it’s a common one, but then, the new thing for me about this is that I didn’t know that they would rather starve themselves than eat anything else aside from eucalyptus. Not unlike to human introverts, they are less likely to be bored with the same stimuli ONLY THAT unlike introverts, they’ve taken it to a higher level! Moreover, because of their euca-addiction, they don’t need water anymore. Amazing!

Another bit of knowledge that previously has not been stored in my memory bank is that of the hummingbirds. I won’t pretend that I know a lot about these avian except that they’re small, and can fly and can sing a different song from that of Miss Regine Velasquez. But with this documentary, I was able to know that their taste buds are like that of a woman—addicted to sweets. Maybe even more. I wouldn’t have ever guessed that they can consume sugar water half of their total weight. Furthermore, I didn’t know that their taste for sweets would take them to an extent that they will fall prey to an artificial sugar-holder like that shown in the documentary where the man put the little flower in his mouth with the open bud just outside his pursed lips and the hummingbird flew to it without any qualms. Talk about sweet tooth!

When it comes to the human tastes, a lot of what we eat, we actually perceived by our sense of smell. And this fact, though not entirely new to me, is still a little surprising since preceding the film-showing, I only know this idea as an abstract concept.

As I watched how the experimenter in the documentary proved her hypothesis that we only know what we eat by associating it to its smell, the previously abstract concept unfolded in my brain. How the subjects only recognized that the “thing” they put into their mouth was a little grainy and somehow spicy and so on, not realizing that it was actually cinnamon without their sense of smell intrigued me to the best, especially when afterwards when they were allowed to released their pinched noses and they exclaimed that it was cinnamon. Surprised at how they were not able to name it beforehand. It only gave more credence to the common idea that the nose and the mouth are intertwined at almost every process they are involved with.

I also learned a lot about the secrets of the sense of smell.

One of these is the appropriateness of the idea that it is REALLY HARD to develop the smelliest odor which can invoke great nausea (same reaction) to almost anyone who may have the luck to smell it. This is because according to the documentary, people react to the same bad smell differently. How strong we react to the smell depends on our past experiences, since like that of the taste associated with the smell of the food, the reaction to the smell of a bad odor depends on the picture we associate with it. This is made possible by the fact that sensory nerves for the sense of smell goes straight to the frontal lobe AND the limbic system where we store intense feelings. Thus, how strong our reaction depends on our intense feelings against it.

That is why some people react to the smell of vomit differently. Some can tolerate it, while others can hardly imagine smelling it. And from what I’ve gathered from the film, the same phenomena may occur when it comes to food.

Just imagine, if I happened to be traumatized (by food poisoning or just an upset stomach) by the taste of okra when I was a child, it may be the cause of why I can hardly be near it. But then, according to the documentary, sensitiveness to taste of food may change over time as we grow. Since when we are still children, we tend to reject bitter and sour foods because such stimuli forge in our brain that it is poison or just plain bad for ourselves. But over time, we get over it for we are already more receptive to the things we can and cannot eat. Moreover, as I’ve learned early on, we humans eventually adapt to different taste even if we hate it at first.

Seeing all these in the film, it makes me want to know more and more even if some may think that they are not relevant at all. Well, I’m the one storing them anyway.

For the secrets of the human senses, I hardly knew at all.

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Originally submitted in Psych 101 Class (SY 08-09, 1st sem)