Gordon M. Shepherd

“The taste of the wine (1) had a sweet taste (2) when I took a taste (3), which was too strong for my taste (4) and therefore not to my taste (5), though I may not have the best taste (6) when compared with your taste (7).”
― Gordon M Shepherd, Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine

“There is a very important lesson for human evolution hidden in figures 9.3 and 12.1. At the cortical level, the three levels of processing are special to the human. Rolls has discussed the evidence that rodents do not have these successive levels; in fact, they have only a tiny area equivalent to the OFC for Level 2 processing. Experiments have reported that in the rodent, sensory identification and reward evaluation are combined and occur even before reaching the cortex. This means that the cortical processing of independent streams of sensory input at successive levels of behavioral analysis is a primate, and perhaps most highly developed human, invention. It is of adaptive value in enabling humans to carry out a more detailed analysis of food and drink flavors. Humans thereby are able to differentiate themselves to a greater degree in terms of flavor preferences. It supports the proposal in Neurogastronomy that humans are more adapted for flavor perception than are other species. It also supports our hypothesis that wine tasting takes advantage of this ability, developed for survival in selecting foods, and uses it to discriminate and enjoy the flavors of wine.”
― Gordon M Shepherd, Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine