The sense of taste (also gustatory from the Latin gustare = to savour, to taste) serves to control the food we eat. Like smell, it is one of the chemical senses. In a broader sense, the sense of taste is a complex interplay of the gustatory (tasting) sense of taste and the olfactory (smelling) sense of smell. This is supplemented by tactile or trigeminal tactile, pain and temperature information from the oral cavity. The latter includes the sensations of pungent (hot) and astringent (effect of tannin-rich red wines, not to be confused with bitter). In a narrower sense, however, taste consists of relatively few flavours that are absorbed via the tongue and partly also via the pharyngeal mucosa.
Flavours: 1 = umami, 2 = bitter flavour, 3 = sour, 4 = sweet, 5 = salty
Tongue: 1 = oral cavity, 2 = taste bud, 3 = tongue mucosa, 4 = taste sensory cell, 5 = basal cell (bud), 6 = Nerve to the brain (transmission), 7 = connective tissue
Flavours
For a long time, only the four flavours bitter, salty, sour and sweet were known. In the 1990s, umami (also meaty, hearty, savoury) was defined and scientifically recognised as the fifth. Finally, in 2011, the existence of receptors for fat in humans and thus fatty was identified as a possible sixth flavour. Other possible flavour qualities under discussion are "water" (tastes "like nothing" in its pure form), metallic and alkaline. Depending on the substance, the perception of a flavour depends on the quantity and is referred to as the perception threshold (limit).
Taste buds
The receptor cells for taste are arranged in buds, which...
