Abstract
Flavours and the Brain
Although most people think they taste with their tongues, flavour experiences are really an upshot of the multisensory intergration of inputs from taste, touch and smell (and perhaps other senses). For this reason, neuroscientists commonly assumed that flavours must be constructs of the brain, but I will argue that we need to distinguish between flavours and flavour perceptions. Flavour perceptions are constructs of the brain and as such they are more or less reliable guides to the objective flavours of the foods and drinks we consume.I shall support this argument with the help of recent neuroscientific findings on taste and smell.
Biosketch
Barry C Smith is the director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses, which pioneers collaborative links between philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists, and AHRC Leadership Fellow for the Science in Culture Theme.
His research concerns the multisensory nature of perceptual experience, focusing on taste, smell and flavour. He publishes theoretical and experimental papers, writing in Nature, Food Quality and Preference and Flavour. In 2010, he wrote and presented a four-part series for the BBC World Service called The Mysteries of the Brain. He is also the wine columnist for Prospect Magazine.
Relevant publications:
SMITH, B.C. 'The Chemical Senses', in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Perception, edited by Mohan Matthen (OUP 2016)
SMITH, B.C. ‘What Does Metacognition Do for Us? in Philosophy and Phenomenological Review, Vo. 89, Issue 3, 2014: 727-735.
SMITH, B.C. 'Perspective: Complexities of Flavour’, Nature, S6, Vol. 486, 21 June 2012,
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7403_supp/full/486S6a.html