FYI. Keith made an interesting comment about his love for the smell (and taste) of vanilla. Well, for me it's chocolate.
George Captain The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) - - - - - - - - - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/science/23nose.html SCIENCE: FINDINGS This Is Your Brain on Chocolate By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: August 23, 2005 You remember Isaac Newton, his apple and the "Why didn't it fall up?" question. In the olfactory sciences, a crucial line of inquiry was opened up some years ago when a friend of a psychologist who was studying food asked, "If I hate the smell of Limburger cheese, why is it so delicious?" Researchers at Yale, the John B. Pierce Laboratory and the University of Dresden may now be closer to a biological answer. They got 11 volunteers to lie inside magnetic brain scanners with separate straws leading to the fronts of their noses (the part above the lip) and the backs (above the palate). The subjects were taught to make facial motions that closed off their palate and kept the experiment from being clouded by any sense of taste. Four odors were pumped in: butanol, farnesol (both described as "pleasantly musky"), lavender and chocolate. Only chocolate activated two different regions. Smelled from up front, it lighted up pleasure-anticipation neurons; from the back, it lighted up food-reward neurons. The scientists are unsure why only chocolate had that effect. Prof. Dana Small of the Yale team said it suggested that the brain changed smell perceptions based on eating, which is rarely done with lavender or musk. Another nasal expert, Dr. Leslie Vosshall of Rockefeller University, suggested confirmation with liver and brussels sprouts. But Dr. Small is interested in food addiction, and she wants an answer to her own Newtonian question: "If I don't want the buttered popcorn, why is it that every time I go to the movies, I'm a goner?" -0- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hpau4hd/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124819180/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOO&cmpgn=GRP&RTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/";>What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
