Tag: taste

Taste, gustatory perception, or gustation is one of the five traditional senses. Taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with receptors of taste buds.
Taste, along with smell (olfaction) and trigeminal nerve stimulation (with touch for texture, also pain, and temperature), determines flavors, the sensory impressions of food or other substances.
Humans perceive taste through sensory organs called taste buds, or gustatory calyculi, concentrated on the top of the tongue. There are about 100,000 taste buds that are located on the back and front of the tongue. Others are located on the roof, sides and back of the mouth, and in the throat.
The sensation of taste can be categorized into five basic tastes: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami. Taste buds are able to differentiate between different tastes through detecting interaction with different molecules or ions. Sweet, umami, and bitter tastes are triggered by the binding of molecules to G protein…