Taste

Anatomy of the Mouth

How Taste Works

• Taste is a chemical sense.• Inside every bump on your tongue there are over

200 taste buds. Each taste bud contains a pore that catches the chemicals in food.

• The food molecules are sensed by 50 to 100 taste receptor cells that project antenna-like hairs into the pore. The responses are sent to the temporal lobe.

• Some receptors respond more to sweet tastes and others respond more to salty, sour, or bitter tastes.

The Basic Taste Sensations

• The 4 basic taste sensations are sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

• The 5th taste sensation is the meaty taste of unami. Investigators found the receptor for this taste later.

Taste and Survival

• Pleasurable tastes attract us to energy rich foods that helped our ancestors survive.

• Aversive tastes keep us from eating foods that may be toxic.

• 2-6 year olds are usually picky eaters when it comes to meat and vegetables. This is because meat and plant toxins were potentially dangerous food poisoning for our ancestors.

What Effects Taste?

• New taste receptors are produced every week or two.

• As you get older, the number of taste buds decreases.

• Smoking and alcohol use also accelerate the decline in taste buds.

• Sensory interaction- one sense may influence another. Such as smell influences taste.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtCzoVSXhhA

Fun Facts

• People without tongues can still taste because of the receptors on the roof and back of the mouth.

• If you lose taste sensation from one side of the tongue, you probably won’t notice. The other side of the tongue will become supersensitive.

• If you hold your nose and close your eyes, you may not be able to tell the difference between and apple and an onion.

• http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23507774/tricking-your-tastebuds