Taste Bud

Taste Bud

Taste buds contain the receptors for taste. They are located around the small structures on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, upper esophagus and epiglottis, which are called papillae. These structures are involved in detecting the five (known) elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and umami. Via small openings in the tongue epithelium, called taste pores, parts of the food dissolved in saliva come into contact with taste receptors. These are located on top of the taste receptor cells that constitute the taste buds. The taste receptor cells send information detected by clusters of various receptors and ion channels to the gustatory areas of the brain via the seventh, ninth and tenth cranial nerves.


On average, the human tongue has 2,000–8,000 taste buds.

Read more about Taste Bud:  Types of Papillae

Famous quotes containing the words taste and/or bud:

    The sweetest honey
    Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
    And in the taste confounds the appetite.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    the bud packed
    tight with its miracle swayed
    stiffly on breaths
    of air, moved

    as though impelled
    by stirrings within itself.
    Robert Earl Hayden (1913–1980)