BiologyCoachOnlineBlog

Taste buds are microscopic structures located on the papillae of your tongue. The papillae are the macroscopic structures that give the surface of your tongue its fuzzy appearance. Taste buds contain taste receptor cells (i.e. gustatory cells) that are responsible for your perception of the five primary tastes. Namely salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami. [Your detection of "flavors" is due to the combination of two or more of these primary tastes.] The five taste-chemicals mix with saliva to form solutions which then enter taste buds via their associated microscopic pores. The solution then makes contact with the receptors of the gustatory cells. The gustatory cells send this chemical information to the gustatory areas of the brain via the seventh, ninth, and tenth cranial nerves. The average human tongue can have as many as 10,000 taste buds (which regenerate about every two weeks).