Taste Health Dictionary

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Taste: From 3 Different Sources

One of the 5 senses. Taste can distinguish only between sweet, salt, sour, and bitter, but in combination with the sense of smell, many different flavours can be distinguished. Tastes are detected by structures called taste buds.
Health Source: BMA Medical Dictionary
Author: The British Medical Association
n. the sense for the appreciation of the flavour of substances in the mouth. The sense organs responsible are the *taste buds on the surface of the *tongue, which are stimulated when food dissolves in the saliva in the mouth. It is generally held that there are four basic taste sensations – sweet, bitter, sour, and salt – but two others – alkaline and metallic – are sometimes added to this list.
Health Source: Oxford | Concise Colour Medical Dictionary
Author: Jonathan Law, Elizabeth Martin

Taste Bud

One of 10,000 specialized structures located mainly on the tongue, with some at the back of the throat and on the palate.

Each bud contains about 25 sensory receptor cells, with tiny taste hairs that respond to food and drink.

Taste buds on different parts of the tongue sense the 4 basic tastes: bitter, sour, salty, and sweet.

buds from stomatitis, mouth cancer, or radiotherapy to the mouth; or damage to nerves that carry taste sensations.... taste bud

Taste, Loss Of

Loss of the sense of taste, usually as a result of the loss of the sense of smell.

The most common cause is inflammation of the nasal passages.

Other causes of loss of taste include any condition that causes a dry mouth (see mouth, dry); natural degeneration of the taste buds; damage to the taste eign particles.

Tear production increases in response to eye irritation and emotion.... taste, loss of

Taste Buds

the sensory receptors concerned with the sense of taste (see illustration). They are located in the epithelium that covers the surface of the *tongue, lying in the grooves around the papillae, particularly the circumvallate papillae. Taste buds are also present in the soft palate, the epiglottis, and parts of the pharynx. When a taste cell is stimulated by the presence of a dissolved substance impulses are sent via nerve fibres to the brain. From the anterior two-thirds of the tongue impulses pass via the facial nerve. The taste buds in the posterior third of the tongue send impulses via the glossopharyngeal nerve.... taste buds

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