How do your senses affect your taste buds?

Well, taste is one of the five senses (taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound). "Taste buds" are parts of your tongue that are involved in taste. But they are not the only part. Here is a good explanation from "Taste." U*X*L Complete Life Science Resource. Eds. Leonard C. Bruno and Julie Carnagie. Vol. 3. Detroit: U*X*L, 2001. 3 pp. 3 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Evanston Public Library. 10 Jan. 2008"

"HOW THE SENSE OF TASTE WORKS

Humans are born with the ability to taste. The sense of taste begins with the tongue. The skin over this muscular organ located inside the mouth is covered with about 10,000 receptor cells, or chemical-sensing bodies. These are called taste buds. Each of these funnel-shaped clusters has an opening called a taste pore. Molecules (small particles) of dissolved substances, containing chemicals, flow into these holes and trigger, or activate, a receptor cell.

The taste buds also respond to other stimuli. When people smell or think of a food they like, their mouth starts to water. This means that people start to produce saliva. In order for humans to actually taste something, it has to be dissolved in saliva. Like smell (called olfaction), taste (also called gustation) operates on the principle of chemoreception. Certain receptors are triggered when chemicals contact them. It was once thought that certain parts of the tongue responded only to one of the four basic categories or sensations of taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty). Now it is thought that individual receptors are not specifically sensitive to only one sensation.

Unless the brain is involved in this process, a person will not be able to actually identify anything he or she has dissolved on the tongue. Science still does not know exactly how this occurs. Somehow, when a dissolved molecule triggers a taste bud, or cell, certain nerves at the root of the cell are also stimulated. These carry impulses to the brain stem, then to the thalamus or the front of the brain stem. The impulses finally end up in the cerebral cortex of the brain, the brain's taste control center. The brain interprets this signal, or impulse, and tells people what they are tasting. As with each of the senses, all of this happens instantaneously."

Hope this helps!

Reference Librarian
Evanston Public Library
Evanston, Illinois