NUFS 144 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Trigeminal Nerve, Taste, Umami

• School: SJSU
• Department: Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging Department
• Course: NUFS 144
• Professor: Dana Billings

Document Summary

Taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts with taste receptors, cells located on tastebuds in the oral cavity mostly on the tongue. Taste along with smell and trigeminal nerve stimulation determines flavors of food or other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds and other areas including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste. There is evidence that genetic makeup influences how we experience a taste. The basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami are detected when chemicals that produce those tastes bind with certain receptors on our tongues. We all have different amounts of various receptors depending on our dna. Research has shown that sensitivity to one particular bitter compound varies wildly between countries. In some parts of asia, south america and africa as much as 85% of native populations are highly sensitive tasters.