The textbooks were wrong about how your language works
The perception of taste is remarkably complex, not only on the tongue but in organs throughout the body.
Think for a minute about the little bumps on your tongue. You've probably seen a diagram of these taste bud arrangements in a biology textbook: sweet sensors at the tip, salty on each side, sour behind, bitter in the back.
The old diagram, which has been used in many textbooks over the years, finds its origin in a study published by David. Hanig, a German scientist, in 1901. But the scientist was not suggesting that different tastes are separated on the tongue. It actually measured the sensitivity of different areas, said Paul Breslin, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “What he found was that you could detect things at a lower concentration in one part compared to another,” Dr. Breslin said. The tip of the tongue, for example, is dense with soft sensors but also contains the others.
Map errors are easy to confirm. If you place a wedge of lemon on the tip of your tongue, it will taste sour, and if you put a little honey on the side, it will taste sweet.
Taste perception is a remarkably complex process, which begins with the first encounter with the tongue. Taste cells have a variety of sensors that signal the brain when they encounter nutrients or toxins. For some tastes, tiny pores in cell membranes allow taste chemicals to penetrate.
These taste receptors are not limited to the tongue; they are also found in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, fat cells, brain, muscle cells, thyroid and lungs. We don't usually think of these organs as tasting anything, but they use receptors to sense the presence of various molecules and metabolize them, said Diego Bohórquez, a self-described gut-brain neuroscientist at Duke University. For example, when the gut notices sugar in food, it tells the brain to alert other organs to prepare for digestion.
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The perception of taste is remarkably complex, not only on the tongue but in organs throughout the body.
Think for a minute about the little bumps on your tongue. You've probably seen a diagram of these taste bud arrangements in a biology textbook: sweet sensors at the tip, salty on each side, sour behind, bitter in the back.
The old diagram, which has been used in many textbooks over the years, finds its origin in a study published by David. Hanig, a German scientist, in 1901. But the scientist was not suggesting that different tastes are separated on the tongue. It actually measured the sensitivity of different areas, said Paul Breslin, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “What he found was that you could detect things at a lower concentration in one part compared to another,” Dr. Breslin said. The tip of the tongue, for example, is dense with soft sensors but also contains the others.
Map errors are easy to confirm. If you place a wedge of lemon on the tip of your tongue, it will taste sour, and if you put a little honey on the side, it will taste sweet.
Taste perception is a remarkably complex process, which begins with the first encounter with the tongue. Taste cells have a variety of sensors that signal the brain when they encounter nutrients or toxins. For some tastes, tiny pores in cell membranes allow taste chemicals to penetrate.
These taste receptors are not limited to the tongue; they are also found in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, fat cells, brain, muscle cells, thyroid and lungs. We don't usually think of these organs as tasting anything, but they use receptors to sense the presence of various molecules and metabolize them, said Diego Bohórquez, a self-described gut-brain neuroscientist at Duke University. For example, when the gut notices sugar in food, it tells the brain to alert other organs to prepare for digestion.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
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