FROM TASTING TO DIGESTING
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
CBSE-V

The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth covered with a moist, pink
tissue called the mucosa. It is involved in licking, tasting, breathing,
swallowing, and speaking. The papillae present on the tongue gives it a
rough texture. It is covered by a number of taste buds.

Taste Buds: Taste buds are sensory organs that are found on
your TONGUE and allow you to experience tastes that are
sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. How exactly do your taste buds
work? Well, stick out your tongue and look in the mirror.

Structure of Tongue:
The human tongue is about 3.3 inches in men and 3.1 inches in women.
It is located in the oral cavity. The tongue is divided into three parts: Tip,
Body & Base The tongue is embryo logically divided into the anterior
and posterior part.

The anterior part is known as the oral or presulcal part that includes the
root attached to the floor of the oral cavity. While the posterior part is
known as pharyngeal or postsulcal part that includes the base forming
the ventral wall of oropharynx.

Your tongue is divided into two different sections: the anterior and
posterior surfaces. The anterior surface is the front two-thirds of your
tongue while the posterior surface makes up one-third of your tongue
and is located near the back of your throat.

The anterior surface is the part of your tongue that can move, and the
part that contains papillae, or taste buds. Your papillae are what allow
you to taste the sweetness of a candy bar, and the sourness of a lemon.
Your tongue has anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 papillae.

Tongue Functions:Your tongue serves many purposes, from helping
you chew and swallow to aiding in talking and singing. The tongue is
made up of many groups of muscles that cause it to quickly move in
multiple directions. The front of your tongue helps you lick a lollipop or
an ice cream cone, or create certain sounds.

The back of your tongue helps you swallow food and make other sounds.
Your tongue is held in place by a thin layer of tissue, so it's not going to
fall out when you cough; it won't go down your throat when you
swallow. Also, your tongue is coated on top by more than 10,000 taste
buds when you are young, which help distinguish between sweet, sour,
salty, and other flavors.

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, the cheek, epiglottis, which are called papillae. The myth of
the tongue map; that 1 tastes bitter, 2 tastes sour, 3 tastes salt, and 4
tastes sweet.

Five know tastes can be detected by taste buds or taste receptor cells.
These are Sweet: the sweet is produced by carbohydrates such as sucrose
and fructose as well as artificial sweetener. Salty: the salty is formed by
salts coming sodium ions, such as sodium chloride and sodium
bicarbonate. Sour: sour is generated by acid compounds such as vigner
and citric acid. Bitter: bitter is produced by a range of organic
compounds and is consider an unpalatable flavor. All the taste buds can
be sense all the tastes, specific taste have slightly higher sensitivity for
certain tastes.

The taste buds are sensory taste receptors located on the tongue, throat
and palate, they help form the perception of taste. Taste buds are taste
receptor cells detect chemicals dissolved in saliva from the food and
other objects and send their sensory information through neurons to the
gustatory centre to the brain.

Taste receptor cells interact with incoming chemicals from food and
other objects on the tongue in groups of 50-150. Each group forms a
taste bud, which is grouped together with other taste buds into taste
papillae. The taste buds are embedded in the epithelium of the tongue
and they make contact with the outside environment through a taste pore.
Microvilli like structure extent from the outer ends of taste buds through
the taste pore, where the process are covered by mucus that lines the oral
cavity.

Mastication The tongue helps in chewing. Deglutition: It helps in
swallowing food. Taste: The tongue transmits taste signals to the brain
and helps in sensing taste. Speech: It is an important organ that
facilitates speech. Secretion: It secretes mucous and serous fluid which
keeps the mouth moist. Salivary Glands Salivary glands comprise three
pairs: Parotid, Submaxillary & Sublingual

FACTS OF TFACTS OF TONGUE
The tongue is a muscular structure attached to the floor of the mouth.
The tongue is the main sensory organ of the taste sense. The upper
surface of a tongue is covered with taste buds which contain taste
receptors. The human tongue has on average 3,000 - 10,000 taste
buds.The bumps we can see on the tongue are called papillae. Taste
buds sit on top of these papillae but are not visible to the human eye.

•There are five elements of taste perception: salty, sour, bitter, sweet, and
umami (or savoury). It is a myth that different tastes come from different
areas of the tongue, these tastes can all be detected anywhere on the
tongue. Humans also use the tongue for speech where it helps with
changes in sound. The tongue also works as a natural way of
cleaning teeth after eating.

•On average, women have shorter tongues than men. Human tongue is
divided into two parts the anterior and the posterior. The anterior part
of the tongue is the visible part at the front and is about two-thirds of the
tongue's length. The posterior tongue area is closest to the throat, and
roughly one-third of length. There are eight muscles in the human
tongue. They can be classified as intrinsic or extrinsic.

There are four intrinsic muscles which are not attached to any bone,
they are the muscles that allow the tongue to change shape, such as point,
roll, tuck etc. There are four extrinsic muscles which are attached to
bone, they allow the tongue to change position, such as poke out, retract,
side-to-side movement. The average length of the human tongue from
the back to the tip is 10 cm (4 in).

•The blue whale has the largest tongue of all animals. Its tongue weigh's
around 2.7 metric tons (425 stone). Taste receptors cannot actually taste
food until saliva has moistened it, for example we usually taste salty
things first as salt dissolves quickly in moisture.

•Dogs and cats often use their tongues to clean their fur and body. The
very rough texture of their tongue allows them to remove oils and
parasites. Have you ever wondered why a dog's tongue hangs out of its
mouth after a lot of exercise? Well a dog's tongue increases in size as it
exercises due to greater blood flow, moisture on the tongue works to cool
this blood flow, cooling the dog.

•Some animal tongues are specially designed to catch prey.
Chameleons, frogs, and anteaters have tongues that can extend out of
their mouth and grab insects.