Serious Reads: Neurogastronomy, by Gordon M. Shepard Imagine
you're in your favorite local restaurant, chewing on a piece of
crusty, warm sourdough bread. Your waiter approaches with a
steaming bowl of tomato soup, along with a melty grilled cheese.
A deep inhale of the soup's aroma hits the back of your palate
and your mouth begins to water. Doesn't it seem as though you
can taste it already? The phenomenons of smell and taste are
still subjects of much research by scientists around the world.
Neurobiologist Gordon M. Shepard has attempted to make this
field accessible to the food-lovers set in his new book,
Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It
Matters. His takeaway messages are clear, but in between it's
easy to get lost in the terminology of this scientific book.
Shepard describes the field of what he terms "neurogastronomy,"
which integrates the research of anthropologists, biochemists,
molecular biologists, behavioral psychologists, and more. He
discusses recent breakthroughs in under