Sense Of Taste Research Paper

The sense of taste is not something that is unique to human. While some insect can taste things with their feet and fishes can taste with their whole body; human and other mammals are limited to their mouth. Human have 5 different types of receptor cells that responds to five primary taste: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Human are able to interacts with the world through the peripheral nervous systems which uses nerves to connect the body’s sensory organ to the central nervous system. The receptors of taste are found on specialized taste receptor cells. These cells are on the 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds that a normal human has. Two third of the taste buds are located on the tongue while the rest are on the roof of the mouth and in the opening of the throat. The …show more content…
The interactions with the taste receptor cells will produce an action potential that will induce an action potential in taste sensory neurons. A neuron has 3 main parts: the dendrite, the cell body, and the axon. Information will be able to move faster in bigger and myelinated axons. In sensory neurons, the action potential is trigger at the dendrite. Each neuron has a cell membrane that encloses each neuron. The cell membrane is semi-permeable which mean certain things can go in and out of it. Since there is a difference in ions concentrations of the extracellular fluid and intercellular fluid, there is a charge of about -70 millivolts inside of the neuron relatively to the outside. This charge is the resting potential charge. So when a taste sensory neurons interacts with the chemicals in the saliva, it triggers an action potential. An action potential occurs when sodium channels in the cell membrane opens up and let Na+ ions to flow into the neuron, causing the inside to become more positive than the outside of the neuron. This process is called