Pour yourself a glass, people – according to Yale neuroscientist, Gordon Shepherd, drinking wine stimulates more grey matter in the brain than solving maths equations.
Ipso facto: wine makes you smarter and maths is redundant.
In his book, Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine, Shepherd says that the process of drinking and interpreting wine is a complex and nuanced one (for those of us that have moved on from necking Fruity Lexia).
“You don’t just put wine in your mouth and leave it there,” he explained on National Public Radio.
“You move it about and then swallow it, which is a very complex motor act.”
Not only that, the brain plays a huge role in deciphering the different notes of the drop. The molecules of the wine don’t have taste or flavour but the way they stimulate our brain is what creates our interpretation of them.
“The analogy one can use is colour. The objects we see don’t have colour themselves – light hits them and bounces off,” he continued.
“It’s when light strikes our eyes that it activates systems in the brain that create colour from those different wavelengths. Similarly, the molecules in wine don’t have taste or flavour, but when they stimulate our brain, the brain creates flavour the same way it creates colour.”
So basically, trying that new Pinot is like practising mindfulness. Genius.
But this video explains why there’s always a catch…
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