Week 5
The chapters were very informative once again. Chapter eight, although addressing chemical senses, went quite deep in the basic operations of the human sensory system. It was interesting to read how the basic sensations of the olfactory and gustatory systems are made complex by the different connections in the nervous system. However, chapter eight also slightly addressed the idea of immune system working in the olfactory system. Although the sensations with quite exposed cells are more precise, the olfactory epithelium is also relatively vulnerable when it comes to microbial attacks. So, I was wondering if there are different types of olfactory systems in the animal world that would be very effective against microbes while still maintaining the precise sensations.
It was interesting to read about the flavour aversion learning because it has happened to me also couple of times. It is confusing that becoming ill and feeling awful after even a pleasant food stimulus can ruin the enjoyment of that certain food for a long time. It was told that this aversion has been associated with associative memory, but it would have been interesting to know what the precise mechanism behind that is and why it is so effective for food stimuli but not for other stimuli, such as noise stimuli.
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