..... Click the link for more information. . A taste bud consists of about 20 long, slender cells; a tiny hair projects from each cell to the surface of the tongue through a tiny pore. The taste cells contain the endings of nerve filaments that convey impulses to the taste center in the brain. Only four fundamental tastes, or a combination of these, can be detected by the buds: sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. Only the buds most sensitive to salty flavor are scattered evenly over the tongue. Sweet-sensitive taste buds are concentrated on the tip of the tongue, sour flavors are detected at the sides of the tongue, and bitter flavors at the back. The close relationship of taste to smell smell, sense that enables an organism to perceive and distinguish the odors of various substances, also known as olfaction. In humans, the organ of smell is situated in the mucous membrane of the upper portion of the nasal cavity near the septum.
..... Click the link for more information. gives the impression that a greater variety of tastes exists. This is also why an impairment of smell, as during a cold, may impart the feeling that the sense of taste is diminished.
taste
or taste perception){kind=small}
taste
Taste
Taste, or gustation, is one of the senses used to detect the chemical makeup of ingested food—that is, to establish its palatability and nutritional composition. Flavor is a complex amalgam of taste, olfaction (smell), and other sensations, including those generated by mechanoreceptor and thermoreceptor sensory cells in the oral cavity. Taste sensory cells respond principally to the water-soluble chemical stimuli present in food, whereas olfactory sensory cells respond to volatile (airborne) compounds. See Chemical senses, Sensation
The sensory organs of gustation are termed taste buds. In humans and most other mammals, taste buds are located on the tongue in the fungiform, foliate, and circumvallate papillae and in adjacent structures of the throat. There are approximately 5000 taste buds in humans, although this number varies tremendously. Taste buds are goblet-shaped clusters of 50 to 100 long slender cells. Microvilli protrude from the apical (upper) end of sensory cells into shallow taste pores. Taste pores open onto the tongue surface and provide access to the sensory cells. Individual sensory nerve fibers branch profusely within taste buds and make contacts (synapses) with taste bud sensory cells. Taste buds also contain supporting and developing taste cells.
The basic taste qualities experienced by humans include sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. (In some species, pure water also strongly stimulates taste bud cells). A fifth taste, umami, is now recognized by many as distinct from the other qualities. Umami is a Japanese term roughly translated as “good taste” and is approximated by the English term “savory.” It refers to the taste of certain amino acids such as glutamate (as in monosodium glutamate) and certain monophosphate nucleotides. These compounds occur naturally in protein-rich foods, including meat, fish, cheese, and certain vegetables.
The middorsum (middle top portion) of the tongue surface is insensitive to all tastes. Only small differences, if any, exist for the taste qualities between different parts of the tongue. No simple direct relationship exists between chemical stimuli and a particular taste quality except, perhaps, for sourness (acidity). Sourness is due to H+ ions. The taste qualities of inorganic salts are complex, and sweet and bitter tastes are elicited by a wide variety of diverse chemicals.
| 1. | taste - (primarily MIT) The quality of a program that tends to be inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and kluges it contains. Taste refers to sound judgment on the part of the creator. See also elegant, flavour. | ||
| 2. | taste - Alternative spelling of "tayste". |
How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content.
| ?Page tools | ||
|---|---|---|
|