The taste buds They are tiny structures found on the surface of the tongue that allow us to detect the taste of everything we eat; In short, it is the structures of the language that are responsible for the sense of taste..
Thanks to the taste buds we can taste and enjoy many different foods and, in addition, we can perceive when a food is in bad condition or when it can be dangerous to our health, all because of its taste.
The tongue, that muscle that we have inside our mouth, not only participates in the process of swallowing food (swallowing), but also helps us feel the temperature, texture and taste of what we eat.
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We owe the sense of taste, in addition to other senses such as smell, to a series of "bumps" -papillae - found on the surface of this muscle, in which a series of receptors are grouped that allow us to detect 5 types of flavors:
In a certain way, the papillae fulfill functions very similar to those of neurons, since they are responsible for translating taste stimuli into electrical signals that are transferred to the brain through sensory nerves, and that can be interpreted by the brain as a flavour, that is, they are sensory organs.
Taste buds are mainly on the tongue, but there are also on the palates, in the epiglottis (which is a portion of cartilage located before the larynx, behind the tongue), on the lips and on the inside of the cheeks.
However, when referring to the taste buds, we generally speak of those of the tongue, which can be classified into four types that are not evenly distributed on the surface of this organ, and it is for this reason that for a long time they have been spoke of the "regions of flavors".
The division of the tongue in these flavor regions proposed that sweet and salty flavors were mainly detected by the taste buds on the tip of the tongue, while the acid flavor was perceived in the lateral margins and the bitter in the most posterior part of the tongue. same.
However, today it is known that all the papillae can capture the 5 flavors that exist: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. However, some can perceive certain flavors more intensely than others, that is, some have more or less specialized receptors to receive certain types of information from food.
It must also be said that the central part of the tongue is devoid of sensory taste buds; Instead, it is filled with a type of papillae that perform mechanical functions during the initial processing of food, but are not involved in detecting flavors..
This means that only the anterior, posterior and marginal ends of the tongue help us to taste.
The taste buds are sensory organs, that is, they are organs equipped with a system of receptors. These receptors are "connected" to nerves specialized in conducting sensory information (in the form of electrical impulses) to the brain..
Each papilla has the appearance of a small fleshy lump on the tongue, and the hundreds of sensory receptors or "taste buds" they have are characterized by the presence of many microscopic or microvilli, who are in charge of sending messages to the command center in the central nervous system.
On average, each human being has about 10,000 taste buds on their tongue, which are organs that are continually replaced throughout life, roughly every 2 weeks from childhood..
However, replacement decreases almost completely when we reach old age and the number of functional papillae in an older adult can be around 5,000, although this number can vary greatly between each person..
The number of taste buds is also conditioned by lifestyle: smokers, for example, have fewer taste buds than non-smokers.
Each taste bud is equipped with a series of buttons gustatory, that our brain needs to know what we are eating. So it is said that these buttons or receptors are the primary units of the taste system.
Each taste bud is embedded in the fleshy papilla to which it belongs and has a small gustatory pore that helps it to communicate with the external environment, that is, to come into contact with the chemical molecules responsible for the taste of food.
These buttons are also made up of a large number of cells that are highly compressed and squeezed together, together with the elements of the nervous system with which they are connected to send information directly to the brain control center..
These cells are responsible for the "sense of taste", which means that they are the ones that have the receptors that are responsible for translating chemical information into electrical information..
There are 4 types of taste buds: fungiform (mushroom-shaped), foliate (fold-shaped), circumvalate (rounded or goblet) and filiform (thread-shaped).
They are approximately 0.5 microns in diameter. They are especially located on the tip and edges of the tongue and have more than one taste bud. The tongue of a human being has, on average, about 190 fungiform papillae, of which about 90% are concentrated in the first two centimeters of the tip..
They are observed as small ridges or folds, located mainly on the lateral margins of the tongue, next to the lower molars. They have more than 100 taste buds.
The tongue has between 6 and 10 of these papillae, which look like hills (shaped like an inverted “V”) and are between 2 and 8 mm in diameter. They contain most of the taste buds of the tongue and are the most complex and largest papillae on the tongue; are found in the posterior third of this muscle.
They are distributed over almost the entire surface of the tongue and although they are included in this classification, they do not actually have taste sensors, since they only fulfill mechanical functions in the abrasion and movement of food particles during chewing..
These papillae are also thought to be involved in the transduction of stimuli such as touch, temperature, and pain..
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