Content-Type: text/shitpost

Today I was telling some folks about how there are more chemical senses than just smell and taste. (The chemical sense researchers call these by the highfalutin' names “olfaction” and “gustation”.) The sense that detects the irritation of hot peppers is completely separate, and unlike gustation and solfaction it is carried to the brain by the trigeminal nerve.

The nerve endings sense and respond to the sting of ammonia, the coolness of menthol, and the burn of chili peppers or ginger. We often enjoy these sensations, as well as bubbly drinks and spicy, tingly foods, when the chemicals are present in small amounts.

(“Monell Taste Primer” provided by the Monell Chemical Senses Center.)

Then I tried to remember which cranial nerve carries the sense of olfaction, and I looked it up in Wikipedia.

It is the olfactory nerve.

Oh, yeah. That's what that does.

(The sense of taste is the responsibility of the glossopharyngeal nerve.)