The Chemical Senses Flashcards
What is gustation?
Gustation is taste and humans and animals are able to identify things because of the chemicals in them.
What are the five tastes?
Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami.
What is umami?
Umami, to the human, can also be described as savory and can be tasted as chemical stimuli based on the amino acid L-glutamate.
What is the history behind the flavor of umami?
Umami means deliciousness and was discovered by the japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908.
Where are the taste buds found?
On the tongue.
What are the bumps on the tongue called?
Papillae. They are small bumps that contain the taste buds.
What are taste buds?
Taste buds are in the papillae and they are barrel-shaped structures that consist of many sensory (taste) cells.
What does each taste cell have?
Each taste cell tends to have one general type of taste
receptor for one of the five basic tastes, meaning a cell is either a bitter cell or a sour cell
What is a tastant?
A taste particle of the food that binds to the taste receptor. (this will produce the sensation of that taste)
What is the olfactory epithelium?
The olfactory epithelium is a big cluster of cells the line the top and the back of the nasal cavity.
What is the olfactory epithelium composed of?
This is composed of basal cells and support cells to provide structure, as well as olfactory receptor neurons (smell receptor neurons)
What do the olfactory receptor neurons have?
These neurons have specialized dendrites where floating particles may attach to olfactory
receptors to be converted by the olfactory system.
How do the receptors work?
The molecules are inhaled and they attach to the receptors. The cells convert that event into a series of action potentials.
What is population coding?
Population coding is when
