Taste

Article By:

Pfaffmann, Carl Department of Psychology, Rockefeller University, New York, New York.

Chaudhari, Nirupa Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.

Roper, Stephen D. Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida.

Last reviewed:May 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.678600

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• Taste, published February 2016:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Taste, published June 2014:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

A chemical sense by which flavors are perceived by receptors in the oral cavity. Taste, or gustation, is one of the senses used to detect (via taste buds; Fig. 1) the chemical makeup of ingested food, thereby establishing its palatability and nutritional composition. Flavor is a complex amalgam of taste, olfaction, and other sensations, including those generated by mechanoreceptor and thermoreceptor sensory cells in the oral cavity (mouth). In addition, olfactory (smell) sensory cells of the nose are particularly important in the perception of flavor. Taste sensory cells respond principally to the water-soluble chemical stimuli present in food, whereas olfactory sensory cells respond to volatile (airborne) compounds. See also: Chemical senses; Chemoreception; Food; Mouth; Nose; Olfaction; Sensation; Spice and flavoring

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