Exercise Two:Perception & Cognition Research

IN TOUCH WITH TASTE
By:Tarz Sachdeva

In our first class, we demonstrated a diagram to familiarize ourselves with the workings of the sense: Taste. Even though we touched all the essential elements, there was still some information missing that is now being discussed in the second exercise where the detailed information is provided. In addition to that it is essential to point out the misconception that the taste buds are only located on the tongue and have specific zones on the tongue for a specific taste.

The sense of taste begins with the Taste Buds. You might call the little knobs dotting the surface of your tongue taste buds, but you'd be wrong. Those are Papillae, and there are four kinds of them: fungiform and filiform on the front half, foliate and vallate on the back. Taste buds are sensory organs that are found all over the mouth: the tongue (maximum), the pharynx, the palate, the epiglottis and the entrance of the larynx and allow you to experience tastes that are Sweet, Salty, Sour, and Bitter and Umami. Taste buds have very sensitive microscopic hairs called Microvilli. Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain about how something tastes, so you know if it's sweet, sour, bitter, or salty.

DID YOU KNOW: The average person has about 10,000 taste buds and they're replaced every 2 weeks or so. But as a person ages, some of those taste cells don't get replaced. Smoking also can reduce the number of taste buds a person has.

Where does the message go in the brain?

When something tasty enters the mouth, its chemicals are dissolved by the saliva:

• The free-floating molecules enter the taste bud through a pore in its center.
• Microvilli excites that cell into issuing a series of chemical and electrical signals.
  
• Taste messages shoot up a pathway to the medulla.
• From there the information is relayed to the gustatory cortex for conscious perception of taste (located right under the somatosensory cortex)
• and to the hypothalamus, a mygdala and insula, which are responsible for behavioral responses like aversion, stomach secretion, and feeding behavior.

Also:
It's important to thank your nose. While you're chewing, the food releases chemicals that immediately travel up into your nose to trigger the olfactory receptors inside the nose. They work together with your taste buds to create the true flavor.

REFERENCES:

1. http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_how.asp?bhcd2=1231697150
2. http://www.wisegeek.com/how-does-the-sense-of-taste-work.htm