Taste Buds Anatomy and Functions

THE STRACTURE OF TONGUES. The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth covered with a moist, pink tissue called the mucosa. It is involved in licking, tasting, breathing, swallowing, and speaking. The papillae present on the tongue gives it a rough texture. It is covered by a number of taste buds. There are several nerves in the tongue that help in transmitting taste signals to the brain, and thus helps in taste sensation.

The Structure Of Tongue

The human tongue is about 3.3 inches in men and 3.1 inches in women. It is located in the oral cavity. The tongue is divided into three parts:

1. Tip

2. Body

3. Base

The tongue is embryologically divided into the anterior and posterior part.  

The tongue is made up of three elements:

1. Epithelium

2. Muscles

3. Glands

Epithelium - The epithelium comprises papillae and taste buds. The taste buds help to sense taste. 

MUSCLES - The Tongue Muscles Are Voluntary And Contain

Glands - The tongue consists of small and scattered glands. These glands are of three types:

1. Mucous Glands

2. Serous Glands

3. Lymph Nodes

Tongue Functions

Following are the important tongue functions:

Mastication - The tongue helps in chewing.

Deglutition - It helps in swallowing food.

Taste - The tongue transmits taste signals to the brain and helps in sensing taste.

Speech - It is an important organ that facilitates speech.

How Do Taste Buds Work?

Here's how it works: While you're chewing, the food releases chemicals that immediately travel up into your nose. These chemicals trigger the olfactory receptors inside the nose. They work together with your taste buds to create the true flavor of that yummy slice of pizza by telling the brain all about it!

Taste buds :  

Taste buds are the sensory organs found on the surface of your tongue.

They are involved in communicating the sense of taste to the brain.

The adult human tongue contains thousands of taste buds.

The four types of papillae containing the taste buds are filiform, fungiform, circumvallate, and foliate.

The four types of taste that we respond to are Sour, sweet, salty, and bitter.

Taste buds are cells on your tongue that allow you to perceive tastes, including sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. Taste buds regenerate approximately every 10 days, which means injured taste buds usually repair on their own.

Taste buds are a small organ located primarily on the tongue. The adult human tongue contains between 2,000 and 8,000 taste buds, each of which are made up of 50 to 150 taste receptor cells. Taste receptor cells are responsible for reporting the sense of taste to the brain.

It is used to be believed that the tongue was divided like a map into sections responsible for tasting things that are salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. Scientists have more recently learned that taste buds on every part of the tongue are able to detect every kind of taste quality.