As many Asian chefs know, a string of Sichuan chillies will make your lips moist.
Experience it.
A new study shows that this hissing sensation comes from specialized nerve fibers that detect the vibration of the body.
Sichuan chillies are not spicy, but chefs often mix chillies with chillies, causing a devastating feeling of hot cooking.
Diana Bautista of the University of California, Berkeley, said that although scientists are well aware of how Sichuan peppers affect mice, the new result is the first to describe how peppers work in the human body.
More importantly, she said, Pepper.
Inducing tingling may be a good way to approximate painful conditions of nerve tingling, such as wrist tunnel syndrome and diabetic neuropathy.
The co-author of the study, Patrick hagard of University College London and his colleagues recruited adventurous diners to explore how Chili Peppers feel in the lab.
Sure enough, after the researchers applied the pepper extract to their lower lip, the mouth of 12 volunteers began to sting.
This tingling feeling is very specific.
Sichuan pepper caused a 50-
Hertz vibration, a frequency detected by nerve fibers known as RA1, September 10.
The researchers measured the frequency of tingling by introducing another hum source.
A mechanical vibrator shakes on the volunteer's index finger while their lips are covered with Sichuan pepper.
People then judge whether the lips or fingers are buzzing.
Haggard says these vibrations reveal a culinary illusion that is caused by a mismatch between stimuli and sensations.
The pepper remains stationary, he says, but the feeling oscillates, suggesting that a component in the pepper would hijack nerve fibers that detect mechanical vibration.
Sliman Bensmaia, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, warned that the results were inconclusive.
Multiple fibers can help deliver signals, he said, and tingling may be a confusing reaction of nerve fibers to various stimuli.
"For example, if you put your tongue in 9-
Volt batteries are not recommended because the brain does not know how to explain this ridiculous input, so you will feel a sting.