system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is it that spicy food always seems so much spicier when hot (temperature)?
gpt
I forget the actual receptor name - it’s been a while (Trpv1 from a quick google search) but we call the sensation hot because it quite literally is binding to receptors on your tongue and in your mouth that relate to sensing/ regulating temperature (and can produce pain/irritability responses etc).  Eating foods that are hot in temperature (another trigger for these receptors/related thermal receptors) then is an additive effect for your overall sensation of sensing hot/increased temperature.  Menthol (like menthol cigarettes) has the opposite effect that works in a similar way in that it binds to tprm8 to create a cooling effect.