Show notes
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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