15.1.3

Taste

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Taste

Taste (gustation) is called a chemical sense because it requires sensory receptors that respond to molecules in the food we eat.

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Types of tastes

  • You have learned since primary school that there are four basic groupings of taste: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.
  • Research demonstrates, however, that we have at least six taste groupings.
    • Umami is our fifth taste.
  • Umami is actually a Japanese word that roughly translates to yummy, and it is associated with a taste for monosodium glutamate.
  • There is also a growing body of experimental evidence suggesting that we possess a taste for the fatty content of a given food.
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Taste buds

  • Molecules from the food and beverages we consume dissolve in our saliva and interact with taste receptors on our tongue and in our mouth and throat.
  • Taste buds are formed by groupings of taste receptor cells with hair-like extensions that protrude into the central pore of the taste bud.
    • Taste buds have a life cycle of ten days to two weeks, so even destroying some by burning your tongue won’t have any long-term effect; they just grow right back.
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Taste transduction

  • Taste molecules bind to receptors on this extension and cause chemical changes within the sensory cell.
  • These changes include the opening of ion channels and the depolarisation of receptors.
    • For example, Na+ ions can flow through ion channels in certain taste buds, leading to the detection of a "salty" taste.
  • The opening of ion channels depolarises the receptor. This creates an action potential in a sensory neuron.
    • Taste information is transmitted via the sensory neuron to the gustatory cortex in the brain.

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