🌶️ Spiciness often gets confused with taste. The latter comes specifically from taste buds on the tongue. Taste buds contain myriad receptors. When compounds such as sugar or glutamate hit the tongue, the corresponding receptors activate and send signals, via neurotransmitters, to the brain, telling it which of the five tastes it’s savoring.⁠ ⁠ Our bodies detect spice using a completely different system from the one for taste. The trigeminal nerve, which is the part of the nervous system that sends touch, pain, and temperature feelings from your face to your brain, interprets them. In this way, spicy isn’t a taste so much as it is a reaction. The spice irritates the tongue and thus sends signals to the brain that the mouth is interacting with something potentially harmful, such as a toxin. The brain then responds by temporarily numbing the tongue, which is the sensation we get when we eat spicy food, as it’s a potential protection mechanism.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #spicy #spiciness #pungency #pains...