Our Mysterious Sense of Smell

Your sense of smell is largely responsible for your ability to taste food. “Flavour is really an integrated experience that combines what happens on your tongue—that’s sweet, sour, salty, bitter, spicy—with smell,” says Asifa Majid, psychology professor at the University of York.

FOR MANY PEOPLE, A FADING SENSE OF SMELL MAY BE JUST A NATURAL PART OF AGEING

“When you put something in your mouth, the molecules go into your nasal cavity. Your tongue might be able to tell that there’s fat in that chocolate, and that’s something the brain finds very rewarding, but the formal chocolate experience comes from all the molecules going into your nose.”

That holds true across all age groups. “This could be due both to women being better able to perceive the smell and women being better at verbalising the odour—that is, providing the odour with a verbal label,” says Erika Jonsson Laukka, senior researcher