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

00:00:00 Introduction

00:06:02 Sensing Chemicals: Smell, Taste & Chemicals That People Make To Control Each Other

00:09:10 Vision Protocols Recap (Brief) & Correction

00:12:20 Color Vision: Excellent Resource: What is Color? (The Book)

00:13:54 How We Sense Chemicals: Enter Our Nose, Mouth, Eyes, Skin

00:17:28 The Chemicals From Other People’s Tears Lower Testosterone & Libido

00:21:16 SMELL: Sniffing, A Piece of Your Brain In Your Nose, 3 Responses To Smells

00:24:40 Smells & Memory: Why They Are So Powerfully Associated

00:26:40 Pheromone Effects: Spontaneous Miscarriage, Males & Timing Female Puberty

00:28:56 Sniffing Creates Alertness & If Done Properly Can Help You Focus & Learn Better

00:34:00 Protocol 1: Sniffing (Nothing) 10-15X Enhances Your Ability to Smell & Taste

00:35:50 Smelling Salts, Ammonia & Adrenaline 

00:38:25 How You Can Become A Human Scent Hound, Detecting Cancer, & Tasting Better

00:43:45 Smell As A Readout Of Brain Health & Longevity; Regaining Lost Sense Of Smell

00:48:30 Dopamine, Sense Of Smell, New Neurons & New Relationships

00:50:20 Why Brain Injury Causes Loss Of Smell; Using Smell To Gauge & Speed Recovery 

00:53:33 Using Smell To Immediately Becoming Physically Stronger

00:54:40 Smelling In Our Dreams, Active Sniffing In Sleep, Sniffing As a Sign Of Consciousness

00:57:35 Mint Scents Create Alertness By Activating Broad Wake-Up Pathways 

00:59:48 Protocol 2 Pleasant Or Putrid: The Microwave Popcorn Test, Cilantro, Asparagus, Musk

01:03:00 Skunks, Costello, All Quiet On The Western Front  

01:04:32 TASTE: Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Umami, Sour; Your Tongue, Gustatory Nerve, NST, Cortex

01:08:45 Energy, Electrolytes, Poisons, Gagging, Amino Acid & Fatty Acid Sensing, Fermentation

01:13:48 Our 6th Sense of Taste: FAT Sensing

01:15:05 Gut-Brain: Your Mouth As An Extension Of Your Gut; Burned Mouth & Regeneration

01:19:30 Protocol 3: Learn To Be A Super-Taster By Top-Down Behavioral Plasticity

01:22:20 The Umami-Sweet Distinction: Tigers Versus Pandas

01:25:05 Eating More Plants Versus Eating More Meat, Cravings & Desire

01:27:15 Food That Makes You Feel Good Or Bad: Taste Receptors On Our Testes Or Ovaries

01:30:05 Biological Basis For The Sensuality of Umami and Sweet Foods

01:32:28 Appetitive & Aversive Sensing: Touching Certain Surfaces, Tasting Certain Foods

01:33:35 Amino Acids Are Key To Life, The Maillard Reaction, Smell-Taste Merge, Food Texture

01:39:00 How Processed Food Make You Crave More Processed Foods

01:39:44 Protocol 4: Invert Your Sense of Sweet & Sour: Miracle Fruit; Swapping Bitter & Sweet

01:43:03 Pheromones, Desire To Continue Mating: Coolidge Effect Occurs In Males & Females

01:46:40 Do Women Influence Each Others Menstrual Cycles? 

01:49:19 Recognizing the Smell Of Your Romantic Partner 

01:50:30 Differences In Odor Detection Ability, Effects Of Hormones

01:53:00 We Rub The Chemicals Of Others On Our Eyes and Skin, Bunting Behavior

01:56:40 Summary

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