15.7: Taste
The sense of taste allows animals to detect and identify dissolved chemicals. In reptiles, birds, and mammals the taste receptors ( taste buds ) are found mainly to the upper surface of the tongue. They consist of pits containing sensory cells arranged rather like the segments of an orange (see diagram 15.3). Each receptor cell has a tiny “hair” that projects into the saliva to sense the chemicals dissolved in it.
Diagram 15.3. Taste buds on the tongue
The sense of taste is quite restricted. Humans can only distinguish four different tastes (sweet, sour, bitter and salt) and what we normally think of as taste is mainly the sense of smell. Food is quite tasteless when the nose is blocked and cats often refuse to eat when this happens.