Taste

Taste is one of the most common and fundamental of the senses of animals. It is the direct detection of chemical composition, usually through contact with chemoreceptor cells. Taste is very similar to olfaction (the sense of smell), in which the chemical composition of an organism's ambient medium is detected by chemoreceptors. In a liquid medium, taste is often used to describe this act as well.

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In humans, the sense of taste is transduced by taste buds and is conveyed via three of the twelve cranial nerves. The facial nerve (VII) carries taste sensations from the anterior two thirds of the tongue, the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX) carries taste sensations from the posterior one third of the tongue while a branch of the vagus nerve (X) carries some taste sensations from the back of the oral cavity. Information from these cranial nerves is processed by the gustatory system.

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As a general rule, taste is a global fuzzy assessment of the interaction of the fundamental taste systems of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. Location of the stimulus on the tongue is not important, despite the common misperception of a "taste map" of preference for different tastes in specific areas of the tongue http://www.med-rz.uni-sb.de/med_fak/physiol1/LDM/chemotopic_1.htm. In reality, the separate populations of taste buds sensing each of the basic tastes are distributed across the tongue.

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If half of the tongue is blocked from sending information to the brain, people will report that a doubling of psychological perception has occurred for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

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See also Flavor

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Sense: :This article is about the senses of living organsims (vision, taste, etc.). For other uses of the term, see sense (disambiguation)....

Animal: :For the Muppet Show character, see Animal (Muppet). For the professional wrestler, see Joseph Laurinaitis....

Chemoreceptor: REDIRECT Chemosensor...

Taste related Images and Photos (experimental)

Bad Taste	Bad Taste	Taste of Tea, The	Taste of Provence
Taste of Tea, The: Limited Edition	Bad Taste Bears - Red Light	A Taste of Hell 1975	Taste the Rainbow, Skittles Jacket - Girls
Taste the Blood of Dracula	Taste the Blood of Dracula	Taste the Rainbow, Skittles Jacket - Ladies	Taste Explosion Salt and Pepper Shakers