Smell and Taste

I used to think that these two senses were connected. I thought that if you lost your sense of smell, you would also lose your sense of taste. That's not true. They are totally different nerves. The reason why people think that is because a lot of us don't use our sense of taste that much. We mostly just use our sense of smell. Our sense of smell is just so powerful.

The nerves for smelling come out of the brain and head toward the forehead and stop just above the nasal cavity, and then the tips of the nerves dangle through the bone separating the brain from the nose. They kind of look like toothbrush bristles. People who have had heavy whiplash (car accident victims, football players, headbangers, etc.) are likely to lose their sense of smell because the little bristles going through the skull get ripped off and the sense is gone forever.

At least they can still taste food, though.