taste receptors
Tongue's sensory cells
Taste receptors are specialized cells on the tongue and elsewhere in the mouth that detect chemical compounds in food and drink, sending signals to the brain that register as sweet, salty, sour, bitter, or umami.
These receptors cluster in taste buds, which sit within the small bumps (papillae) visible on the tongue's surface.
- papillaeSmall tissue protrusions
- tongueOral muscle for taste
- chemoreceptorsCells detecting molecular stimuli
- umamiFifth taste sensation
- sweetTasting of sugar
sweet tooth · microvilli · bitter · gustation · cranial nerves · glutamate · quinine · sour · artificial sweeteners · salty · flavor · food pairing · lingual · neural pathways · nerve · neurotransmitters · threshold · spicy
- tastebitter, salty, sour, sweet, spicy
- sensessight, smell, hearing, touch, vision
- taste and smellsmell, flavor, gustation, olfaction, sweet
- Flavor Sciencearoma, bitterness, sweetness, sourness, saltiness
- chemical sensessmell, olfaction, gustation, tongue, nose
- sensory testingblind tasting, sensory thresholds, flavor profiles, mouthfeel, rating scale
sensory modality
taste receptorsphotoreceptors
Cells sensing light
mechanoreceptors · proprioceptors · pain receptors · baroreceptors