Dictionary of organoleptic terms

INTRODUCTION

In order to understand in real time his often hostile environment, humans, like many animals, have, for reasons of survival and safety, several sensory organs, all of which have a very large sensitivity.
Man, for his part, has five sense organs, so-called senses primary ou traditional which are: the ear (meaning ofhearing), eyes (sense of view, which provides almost 80 percent of the information coming from outside the body), the skin (sense of toucher), the nose (meaning ofsmell) and the mouth (sense of taste).

The senses of the human being : The most widely accepted definition is that which makes the senses a system of receptors, or sensitive cells, capable of capturing and translating several forms of energy (stimuli) and transmit them to the central nervous system in the form of nerve impulses. These nerve impulses, the sensations proper, are then interpreted by the encephalon, or its equivalent in species which lack them, to allow their perception. The nerve impulse is then encoded in the form of action potentials and the information transmitted to specialized regions of the brain. Depending on the type of stimulation, the processing centers of the brain differ. There is in fact a specialized area (see Plate below) in the processing of olfactory, visual, tactile stimuli, etc.
There is no real agreement among neurophysiologists on the exact number of senses in humans and other animals. The multiplicity of relationships between the sensible world and the intelligible world augurs well for the difficulties encountered in the search for a precise definition. A widely used and reductive definition implies the sensitive world as restricted to five senses: taste, smell, hearing, vision and touch. But it is accepted that the sensory perception of animals is in fact larger. For mammals, including humans, we can cite the sense of balance perceived by means of the three semicircular canals of the inner ear, the sense of proprioception which indicates to us the relative position of the members of our body and which allows us for example (even blind or simply with our eyes closed) to bring our index finger to the tip of the nose. These senses and others do not fit into the five commonly known senses. Unlike birds and fish (dolphins), which are able to perceive the lines of terrestrial magnetic fields and their variations, man has little or no sense of orientation by magnetic perception.

But the term meaning can take on two very different aspects depending on whether we are dealing with immediate (therefore instinctive) or mediated (therefore rational, scientific) communication. The Cartesian philosopher Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), linked the real world to reason and the sensitive world to an illusory and deceptive world. In fact, the senses are not only transducers allowing the measurement of parameters. Any reductionist vision that equates perception with a cerebral configuration therefore seems illusory.

The five primary senses of man are therefore the instruments of perception, that is to say the link which connects the organism to the outside world and which allows it to recognize, thanks to the interpretation given by thought and knowledge, information which, among all the information reaching it, could be useful to it.

The work of smell and taste:
Olfaction and taste are chemical senses. That is to say that the olfactory and gustatory sensations are caused by the stimulation of certain sensitive nerve cells in the nose or in the mouth by specific molecules.
Odor receptors (olfactory neurons) are stimulated by chemical particles suspended in the air around us (the smell of fresh bread, freshly roasted coffee or a bouquet of flowers, etc.). All the receptor cells with different odors are located at the top of the nasal cavities.
When an olfactory neuron is stimulated, it produces an electrical current which is transmitted to the brain through the fibers of the olfactory nerve. In the brain, these olfactory perceptions are analyzed, recognized and memorized. Man can thus recognize more than ten thousand different smells.
Taste receptors (taste neurons) are activated by certain molecules present in our food or drinks. These taste stimuli are transmitted to the brain by the lingual nerve, the glossopharyngeal nerve and the vagus nerve.
The taste nerve cells are located on the palate, tongue and throat.
Healthy people are able to recognize five different taste stimuli called basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour.
When eating, odors pass through the nose through its posterior part (retro-nasal olfaction).
The other sensitive nerves: In the vicinity of the olfactory and taste nerves, there is a 3rd nerve: the trigeminal nerve which is sensitive to heat, cold, irritants such as pepper and consistency (liquid, solid or gas). The trigeminal nerve divides into three branches: the ophthalmic nerve, the maxillary nerve and the lingual nerve.

To the four fundamental flavors of taste which are acid, bitter, salty and sweet, the Japanese have added a 5th element:umami who is "the" fifth flavor who is neither saltNor sweetNor acidNor bitter and whose licorice would be the most representative.
Receptor (or sensory) neurons constitute the first cellular level of the nervous system of perception. They transduce physical signals (light, sound, temperature, pressure, mechanical tension, etc.) into chemical signals (neurotransmitters) transmitted to a postsynaptic neuron which will convert the message into a nerve signal transmitted in the form of action potential trains.
The sense of touch through the skin (skin sensitivity), which is involved in the exploration of objects by palpation, is located in the sensory cortex of the brain.
Poor relative of the organoleptic inclination, hearing, nonetheless remains present in certain detections linked to the state or to the preparation of drinks or food and to their consumption. Thus the oenologist will be able to appreciate the quality of the bubbles of a sparkling wine by listening to their rustling, just as the cook will listen to the 'song' of butter ready to cook a product. Hearing also intervenes to hear the noises of crunching while eating and the surrounding noises. If we eat in a very noisy environment, we perceive much less taste and we have much less taste pleasure, which, according to dieticians, often leads to exaggerated food intake.

The properties or organoleptic characteristics of foods: The term "organoleptic" comes from the Greek words "organos" meaning "organs" and lepticos meaning "by means of ..."). This adjective is used for the impression that we acquire directly through the sense organs and which determines the appetite or disgust for a food.
The organoleptic qualities of a food or drink make it possible to define it by its flavor (odor, aromas, flavor), its odor, its color, its appearance, its texture (consistency to the touch, to chewing), its noise (or rustling), for example, the bubbles of a sparkling wine, etc.

Good and bad smells: In Gai-Savoir, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) explains brilliantly and as never before, why man hates, detests the ugly and the foul-smelling, strongly opposes them, firmly rejects what is contrary to any form of beauty and fragrance, because, he says , if he did not do so, that would amount to accepting the permanent abasement, the certain debasement, the slow degradation and the infamous decay of his type, of his nature.
Man injures and weakens himself, becomes ill, affects himself and becomes infected, paralyzes, excretes, sweats, sweats and smells bad, ruins himself, decomposes and finally rots. There he concludes that in this hatred of ugliness and bad odor, in this battle against physical and exhaltic annihilation, against rot, there is a thrill, clairvoyance, prudence.
Also during all this inescapable war against his unhappy fate, modern man will have no ceasing but to conquer putrid smells, and, during his short life to smell good bodily, to smell good smells, to perceive good flavors and to taste good aromas, to eat and drink good, if not excellent, food and drink.
Finally, he concludes, should we not see in the unbearable odor of the bladders and the faeces of man, first of all a warning, then a natural defense, thus scaring away its potential predators? that he is in a situation of weakness due to a physically delicate posture during his pre-act and his act of defecation.

Flavors: A flavor corresponds to all the sensations perceived when smelling or putting in the mouth of the food, namely retro-olfactory, gustatory and trigeminal sensations.
These sensations are the result of stimuli generated by a multitude of organic compounds. The most volatile molecules (essential oils) are the first to be detected. It is only during chewing that the other non-volatile molecules will manage to evaporate and reach the nasal cavities.
The flavor of a food is made up of the sum of the five different taste stimuli, its temperature, its irritating properties, its smell and its consistency. It is the smell of a food that probably contributes the most to its characteristic flavor.

The different types of meaning:

1) Reception of electromagnetic energy

- Vision : Vision is the sense dedicated to the visual perception of the world using the visible part of electromagnetic radiation, that is, for the human eye, the true organ of sight, wavelengths between approximately 350 and 750 nm.

Vision covers all the physiological and psychological mechanisms by which the light emitted or reflected by the environment determines the details of sensory representations, such as shapes, colors (http://www.pourpre.com), textures, movement, distance and relief. These mechanisms involve the eye, the organ that receives sight, but also complex cognitive processes implemented by specialized areas of the brain. The psychological function of this very complex system is therefore the permanent visual update of the mental representation of the real world of the individual.

- Electroception : Electroception (or electroreception) is the most significant of the non-human senses. It is the ability to detect electric fields. Many species of fish, sharks, rays, can sense changes in the electric field in their immediate vicinity. Some fish passively sense changes in the near electric field; others generate their own, of weak intensity, and can feel the distribution of the potential on their body surface; still others use these generative and sensational capacities for social communication. The mechanisms allowing the construction of a spatial representation from tiny differences in potential involve the comparison of the latency times of the peaks coming from each part of the body. Humans (and possibly other mammals) can sense electric fields indirectly, through the effect they have on body hair. For example, an electrically charged balloon will exert an attractive force on hair, which can be felt by touch, and be identified as coming from an electric charge (not wind or whatever).

- Magnetoception : It is the ability to detect variations in the magnetic field. It is commonly observed in birds, it is moreover this same sense that would allow them to orient themselves during their migrations using the terrestrial magnetic field. Magnetoception is also observed in insects such as bees as well as in certain cetaceans. It should also be inferred in certain mammals such as bovids: cows tend to orient the longitudinal axis of their body along the axis of terrestrial magnetism. This statistical finding concerns both grazing cows and lying ruminating cows. This observation has also been made in deer. Neither the mechanism nor the usefulness of this behavior is currently known (2015).

2) Mechanic reception

- Touch : The sense of touch provides information by skin contact with the surface of objects. The skin has two layers, its thickness is from one to four millimeters depending on the part of the body. It is very elastic, which allows it a certain plasticity. It is through the skin that the sensations of touch come: tactile (recognition of textures), thermal (hot or cold), or even emotional (pain, sensuality, etc.). The first surface layer of coating is called "epidermis". The second layer is a deep part where the nerve endings are located, it is called "dermis".

- Hearing (or hearing) is the ability to perceive sounds. It results from the propagation of longitudinal waves in the atmosphere emitted in a frequency band ranging from 20 to 20 hertz in humans (see up to 000 hertz depending on the person), then received and adapted by the organ of hearing, the ear. The pinna of the outer ear focuses and amplifies the wave that passes through the duct and vibrates the eardrum. Then it is transmitted by the chain of ossicles to the inner ear. Sound is transmitted to the brain by nerve cells inside the spiral staircase and the auditory nerve. It is then analyzed and interpreted. The science that deals with this field is psycho-acoustics which is the study of the auditory sensations of Man. It is therefore located at the border between acoustics, physiology and psychology.

- Echolocation: It is the detection of sound waves not perceived by humans because of their high frequency. Bats, for example, are gifted with echolocation.

- Proprioception: It is the perception of the body. It is a perception that people frequently resort to without knowing that it exists. More easily demonstrated than explained, proprioception is the 'unconscious' perception of where different parts of the body are located at any given moment (this can be demonstrated to a person by asking them to perform some movement). , as for example that of raising the hand, while his eyes are closed; the person in question will have, at each moment of the movement carried out, the knowledge of the place where the part of the displaced body is located, in the occurrence his hand). This knowledge is permitted by the proprioception, since in principle the other senses cannot be informed about it.

3) chemo-reception

- Taste : The tongue has 3000 taste buds made up of cells specialized in basic flavors: salty, sweet, bitter, sour (or sour), umami. It was once believed that each flavor had a part of the tongue reserved for it, however studies have shown the opposite by applying a drop of salty or sweet substance to the same place: the subject could recognize the flavor whatever or the location of the gout, the "flavor mapping" is therefore obsolete. The receptor cells pick up the stimuli and send the corresponding signals to the brain. This allows you to feel the taste.

- The smell : The nose is a very sensitive organ which is able to perceive thousands of smells. Olfaction is the second of the senses after taste to use a molecular and therefore "chemical" reaction. According to the physiological theory currently in force, specific configurations combining hundreds of olfactory cells, are made to react to a certain peculiarity of the odorant molecule. If you breathe through your nose, the air passes directly into the throat and a very small part then reaches the olfactory cells. These cells will transmit informative impulses to the olfactory nerve which sends an electrical signal to the brain, allowing it to recognize the smell by the olfactory system. Olfactory receptor neurons differ from other neurons in that they die and regenerate at regular intervals.

4) Thermoception : It is the sense of perception of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin. This is the first meaning not explicitly identified by Aristotle. In addition, there is disagreement as to the number of senses devoted to this type of perception, given the fact that skin thermoreceptors differ significantly from homeostatic thermoreceptors which allow feedback of the internal temperature of the body.

5) nociception : Nociception is the perception of pain. It can be grouped into one to three senses, depending on the classification method.
The three types of nociceptors are:
- Cutaneous receptors at the level of the skin.
- Somatic receptors in the joints and bones.
- The visceral receptors at the level of the visceral organs.

6) The senses of hunger and satiety: Hunger in mammals (and arguably in many other classes of living things) is a sensation that occurs when the level of glycogen in the liver drops below a certain level, usually preceding the desire to eat. This sensation, often unpleasant, arises from cells sensitive to a very small drop in blood sugar, located in the hypothalamus, and is then released by receptors in the liver.

Satiety, on the other hand, is a sensation that one feels when one is no longer hungry, after eating; it is also conditioned by the hypothalamus. This sensation is in particular controlled by a hormone.

The senses and the disciplines approached:

Independently of the general (or generic) terms common to the five primary senses, three major disciplines are addressed in this Dictionary of Organoleptic Terms:

- Oenology and its terms, often serious but colorful, specific to the visual quality and the taste value of the wine.

- Gastronomy (and the cuisine), with its wide range of tastes, aromas, flavors, flavors, textures and colors.

- The perfume shop: with its richness of plants, vegetable or animal materials, resins, gums,… and its definitions relating more to chemistry than to personal hygiene.

To your senses!