Is there a reason in your plot for complete loss of taste? Because smell is very important in taste, even if you take out the tastebuds. A lot of what we think is taste is smell. So you might need to take out both senses...?
OP: There's a reason in the plot for the loss of taste, though it doesn't have to be complete loss. I'm looking for a noticeable deficiency, really.
If I absolutely had to take out smell as well, I suppose exposure to fumes could also have an effect, though I read that the olfactory nerves regenerate easily, so that's why I thought focusing on the sense of taste, limited as it is, might be better. I know the two senses are closely connected, but I figured that just the taste buds would have an effect? It seems that the way the brain processes the senses is very complex. : )
The taste buds can actually only distinguish between very basic "tastes" (I think salty, bitter, sweet and "savoury"), but all of the nuances of taste are coupled with, and dependent on, the sense of smell. The sense of smell doesn't only have to do with the membranes in the nose, but also with the limbic system in the brain. There have been people who lost their sense of smell completely through a head injury, and with that, also their sense of taste. Molly Birnbaum wrote a very interesting book about her own experience titled "Season to Taste", about losing her sense of smell and taste after a car crash.
That's what I came in to say! I had a Manual Arts teacher who lost his sense of smell and taste after breathing in industrial fumes. Maybe some bleach got into the nose?
Yep, as I read the answers here and do more research it seems like it would be most realistic to have damage done to the nasal passage to get the effect that I want. A head injury would definitely be the best bet for total, permanent loss. I guess I'm resisting it because it's less direct and I think that might over-complicate the narrative, but it's still the most realistic. Scary to think of the effects that such an injury can have.
mybe useful, maybe not - once, in a failed chemistry experiment gone badly wrong, I got a snootful of chlorine gas - I coughed and spluttered for quite some time afterwards, and for upwards of a week everyhting had a faint chlorine taste to it, no matter WHAT I put in my mouth - chocolate? Cheese? Apples? Pickles? French Fries? Chicken? They ALL came with a Side of Chlorine.
It wore off after a while, though. I am not sure what would engender a PERMANENT change in the sense of taste - but I'm pretty sure that actually drinking and swallowing copious amounts of bleach would be pretty permanently bad for your health in ways that would leave the loss of the sense of taste in their dust...
Ow, that sounds unpleasant. Drinking copious amounts of bleach would probably burn holes in a lot of vital organs, which isn't what I'm looking for, so I'm going for a relatively small amount. Most of the time loss of smell and taste does wear off after a certain period, it seems...but it's a very inexact sort of thing. Thanks for commenting!
Industrial solvents can have the same effect. This happened on the job to someone I knew (he wasn't given proper ventilation and respiratory equipment), but I can't remember the specific chemicals, unfortunately. Check out the scary effects of aromatic hydrocarbons... xylene maybe, that's super toxic...
Nasal sprays have been linked to loss of smell and taste. Apparently it has something to do with zinc.
The damage done by bleach will depend mostly how strong the bleach is. Household bleach in the USA is 2% to 4% and while it is obviously not a good idea to drink it, small amounts can be ingested without permanent injury. If it is stronger though... One thing to keep in mind, is one of the side effects of ingesting bleach is vomiting and if the dude's mouth is taped shut, that in and of itself could very easily kill him.
Interesting! It seems that some medications like this have permanent loss of taste and smell as a side-effect. Of course, it may also have to do with the illness that caused people to use the sprays...or it may not.
M choking to death due to vomiting was one of my major concerns here, actually. I may have to simply write it as a near-death experience. He's starved, though, a detail I forgot to mention, so that might help with that problem. Also, those torturing him would be in trouble if he died, so if he started visibly asphyxiating, they would remove the tape. Hopefully that would be enough. It takes several minutes to choke to death, I think?
You can certainly choke to death on vomit, but even if you don't there, is the danger of aspiration pneumonia which can happen if any foreign material is breathed into the lungs. Even if there is no food in his stomach,there will still be gastric acid and I imagine that would not be an awesome thing for the lungs to deal with.
Thanks for this! I was able to find a lot of relevant information searching for aspiration pneumonia and chemical pneumonia, including example cases of some similar situations of inhaling stomach acid and chemicals. Permanent lung damage and all the nasty effects that come along with that are actually pretty useful for me.
What you're doing is killing the nerve endings that transmit the 'taste' messages to the brain. They can be 'routed round' - I lost my sense of smell after operations on my nasal passages, but can still 'smell' by drawing air over my upper palate (my sense of taste isn't affected). I suspect that damage to the tongue and palate as described would affect the sense of taste (and possibly smell), at least for a while.
A lot of taste also depends on expectation - the hypnotists trick of getting someone to eat an onion under the impression that it's an apple is relevant. Your character may still 'taste' food that he's already familiar with and can see even if the actual nerves have been destroyed.
I'm constantly amazed by the adaptability of the brain and the senses. :) Of course, as I want M to have trouble with taste, it's a problem for me. Though after such a long period, memories of tastes would probably fade some? Wiping it out entirely is probably impossible, but I just need things to taste noticeably blander/worse.
Comments 21
Reply
If I absolutely had to take out smell as well, I suppose exposure to fumes could also have an effect, though I read that the olfactory nerves regenerate easily, so that's why I thought focusing on the sense of taste, limited as it is, might be better. I know the two senses are closely connected, but I figured that just the taste buds would have an effect? It seems that the way the brain processes the senses is very complex. : )
Reply
Reply
I had a Manual Arts teacher who lost his sense of smell and taste after breathing in industrial fumes. Maybe some bleach got into the nose?
Reply
Reply
Reply
It wore off after a while, though. I am not sure what would engender a PERMANENT change in the sense of taste - but I'm pretty sure that actually drinking and swallowing copious amounts of bleach would be pretty permanently bad for your health in ways that would leave the loss of the sense of taste in their dust...
Reply
Reply
Reply
Nasal sprays have been linked to loss of smell and taste. Apparently it has something to do with zinc.
The damage done by bleach will depend mostly how strong the bleach is. Household bleach in the USA is 2% to 4% and while it is obviously not a good idea to drink it, small amounts can be ingested without permanent injury. If it is stronger though... One thing to keep in mind, is one of the side effects of ingesting bleach is vomiting and if the dude's mouth is taped shut, that in and of itself could very easily kill him.
Reply
M choking to death due to vomiting was one of my major concerns here, actually. I may have to simply write it as a near-death experience. He's starved, though, a detail I forgot to mention, so that might help with that problem. Also, those torturing him would be in trouble if he died, so if he started visibly asphyxiating, they would remove the tape. Hopefully that would be enough. It takes several minutes to choke to death, I think?
Reply
Reply
Reply
A lot of taste also depends on expectation - the hypnotists trick of getting someone to eat an onion under the impression that it's an apple is relevant. Your character may still 'taste' food that he's already familiar with and can see even if the actual nerves have been destroyed.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment