Exercise One- Adam, Amanda, Banafsheh and Jenny

WHAT IS TASTE?

Taste is the result of electrical impulses, sent from the tongue to the brain, usually when eating. These impulses are then recognized as one of the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

HOW DOES TASTE WORK?

Taste begins on the tongue with papillae. Some of the papillae contain gustatory receptor cells, or taste buds. Each of these receptors contains gustatory hair, which protrudes from the taste pore.

As the papillae creates friction between the food and tongue, and the food is broken down by chewing and saliva, the molecules created reach the gustatory hair by means of the taste pore.
An electrical impulse results from the stimulation, and travels through the nervous system to the cerebral cortex, where they are interpreted by the brain as one of the five taste senses.

SIDE NOTES

*New research has shown that the previously accepted "tongue map" is incorrect. Instead of the tongue being sectioned off in taste areas, the entire tongue is capable of transmitting tastes, provided the papillae contains gustatory receptor cells.

*Umami, (oo-mo-mee), is the fifth taste to be added on to the list of primary tastes. It is caused by glutamate, a common amino acid in food.



Sources:
http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_how.asp http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_umami.asp http://www.msginfo.com/about_taste_role.asp
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/taste_buds.html
http://health.howstuffworks.com/taste.htm