PHYSIOLOGY

OF
TASTE SENSATION

PRESENTED BY
N.NARMATHA
INTRODUCTION:
• Taste belongs to our chemical sensing system, or the chemosenses.
• The complex process of tasting begins when tiny molecules
released by substances stimulate special cells in the nose, mouth,
throat.
• Tongue is a muscular organ situated in the floor of the mouth.
• Associated with functions of taste, speech, mastication and
deglutition.
• Taste buds – sense organs for taste or gustatory sensation.
• One’s sense of smell also contributes strongly to taste sensation

Women have better sense of taste – typically have more taste areas –
fungiform papillae and taste buds than men.
ANATOMY:

Tongue has
• Root
• Tip
• Body
PAPILLAE OF TONGUE:
• Gives characteristic roughness to
anterior two-thirds of tongue.
• Projections of mucous membrane or
corium.
• Taste buds are present

TASTE BUDS:
Ovoid bodies - 50 – 70 µ
TYPES OF PAPILLAE:
• Vallate or circumvallate papillae
• Fungiform papillae
• Filliform papillae or conical papillae
• Foliate papillae
VALLATE PAPILLAE:
Diameter: 1-2 mm
No: 8 - 12
Situation: in front of sulcus terminalis.
FUNGIFORM PAPILLAE:
• Colour: Bright red
• Numerous near tip and margins of tongue.
• Scattered over the dorsum.
• Size: < vallate papillae > filliform papillae
FILLIFORM PAPILLAE:
Colour:Velvet
Situation: presulcal area of dorsum of tongue
Smallest and most numerous.
FOLIATE PAPILLAE:
Situation :In front of the palatoglossal arch.
STRUCTURE OF TASTE BUD
MUSCLES OF TONGUE
ARTERIAL SUPPLY OF TONGUE:
Lingual artery , tonsillar , ascending pharyngeal branch of external
carotid artery.
VENOUS DRAINAGE
LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE
NERVE SUPPLY
PRIMARY SENSATIONS:
• Sour taste
• Salt taste
• Sweet taste
• Bitter taste
• Umami taste
GUSTATORY PATHWAY
Sour taste: Caused by acids - hydrogen ion concentration
Salty taste: Elicited by ionized salts – sodium ion concentration.
Sweet taste: Organic chemicals, sugars, glycols, amino acids etc..
Bitter taste: Organic substances containing nitrogen, alkaloids.
Umami: pleasant taste sensation that is quantitavely different from
sour, salt , sweet or bitter.
MECHANISM OF STIMULATION:
Binding of taste
chemical to protein
receptor molecule

Opens ions channels

Allows positively
charged sodium ions
or hydrogen ions

depolarize

Taste chemical
washed away

Stimulus removed.
GENERATION OF NERVE IMPULSES:
• First application of stimulus: rate of discharge – rises to peak in a
small fraction of second
• Next few seconds : back to lower ,steady level
GENERATION OF NERVE IMPULSES
PATHWAY FOR TASTE:
• RECEPTORS:
• Type III cells of taste buds.
• Each taste bud is innervated by about 50 sensory nerves .
• Each nerve fiber supplies atleast 5 taste buds.
FIRST ORDER NEURONS:
• Present in the nuclei of different cranial nerves.
• Dendrites of the neurons are distributed to the taste buds.
Fibres run along the following nerves.
1. Chorda tympani – anterior two thirds of tongue.
2. Glossopharyngeal nerve fibres – posterior one- third .
3. Vagal fibres – taste buds in other regions.

• Axons of first order neurons run together in medulla oblongata

and terminate in the nucleus of tractus solitarius.
Second order neurons:
• Present in the nucleus of tractus
solitarius.
• Axons run through medial
lemniscus and terminate in
posteroventral nucleus of
thalamus.
Third order neurons:
• Center – opercular insular cortex
in parietal lobe of cerebral
cortex.
TASTE TRANSDUCTION:

Taste receptors

Chemical energy

Action potential in
nerve fiber
 receptors

Stimulated by substances
dissolved in mouth by saliva

microvilli

Receptor potential

Action potential
APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY:
1.Ageusia – Loss of taste sensation .
Cause:
• Tissue damage to nerves – chorda tympani nerve,
glossopharyngeal nerve.
• Lingual nerve damage during otologic surgery.
• Neurological disorders,
• Drugs – cisplastin, ACE inhibitors, azelastin,clarithromycin.
2.Hypogeusia – diminished taste sensation.
Cause:
• Drug – bleomycin
• Zinc defeciency.
3.Hyperguesia: enhanced gustatory sensitivity.
- malfunction in the signal propagation from tongue to brain

4.Dysgeusia/paraguesia – altered taste sensation.

Cause :
Drugs
Zinc defeciency.
5.Cacoguesia – bad taste in the mouth.
- occurs independent of any drug, food, liquid
- described as all five taste signals, permanently on and mixing.

6.Heteroguesia –inability to distinguish between tastes.

- lingual or glossopharyngeal nerve sheaths damaged – signal
contamination between strands.
-Damage to olfactory centre in brain.
7.Phantoguesia – gustatory hallucination
- due to misfiring nerves – sends signals where there is
no source
- linked to memory in the brain
8.Norguesia –the sought after ideal.
• Familial dysautonomia – loss of taste sensation.
• Taste blindness – Very high threshold to bitter taste
CAUSES:
Defeciency
• Vitamin B 12 defeciency

• Zinc responsible for

• repair and produce taste buds

• Cofactor for alkaline phosphatase

(enzyme in taste bud membranes)
ENDOCRINE DISORDERS:
• Cushing’s syndrome
• Hypothyroidism - has effects at multiple points of the gustatory
and olfactory perceptual pathways.
• Diabetes mellitus
- Oral & perioral disorders(hypogeusia)
- Xerostomia
- Glossitis – ageusia.
- Diabetic autonomic neuropathy(rare-0.05%)
- Peripheral neuropathy.
- Sweet taste receptors(T1R2) increased.
- Metformin,glibenclamide
LOCAL INJURY OR INFLAMMATION:
• Radiation therapy saliva interacts & protects taste receptors
decrease in saliva
mediates sour & sweet taste
(bicarbonate ions,glutamate)
dysguesia

• Glossitis
• Tobacco usage
• Denture use
MEDICATIONS:

• Mechanism:
Oral mucositis, oral infection, salivary gland dysfunction.
• Antiproliferative drugs - cisplastin
inhibition of sodium channels
• ACE inhibitors – losartan
• The ACE enzyme is a zinc-dependent enzyme.
• ACE inhibitors, need zinc for reaction,
• the inhibition of ACE by the drug - affect the zinc of the ACE
protein in the salivary gland cells - alter taste
• Antihistamines – azelastine,emedastine
• Drugs containing sulfhydryl groups – penicilamine, captopril
React with zinc - defeciency - dysguesia
• Anti rheumatic drugs
• Metronidazole ,chlorhexidine
interact with metal ions in cell membrane.
• Calcium channel blocker -Amlodipine
block calcium sensitive taste buds.
NEUROLOGIC CONDITIONS:
• Bells palsy
- facial nerve damage - aguesia
• Familial dysautonomia
• Multiple sclerosis
Others :
• Ageing – diminished taste buds.
• Xerostomia
• Injury to glossopharyngeal nerve
• Damage to pons,thalamus,midbrain
• Anxiety disorder
• Cancer
• Renal failure
• Hepatic failure
• Bladder obstruction – dysguesia
areas responsible for urinary system and taste are in close
proximity(pons &cerebral cortex).
• Upper respiratory and middle ear infections
• Cold – odors – cant reach sensory cells in the nose -food
tends to taste bland .
• Sinus infections
• Surgery to ear ,nose,throat
• Poor oral hygiene
• Third molar extraction.
Diagnosis of taste sensation:
Chemical methods:
• Determined by measuring the lowest
concentration of a taste quality
• Asked to compare the tastes of different substances
• To note how intensity of a taste grows when substance’s
concentration is increased.

• Semi-quantitative clinical gustometry using a filter-paper disc

recognition thresholds for four basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour

and bitter) were evaluated using chemical solutions (sucrose,
NaCl, tartaric acid and quinine, respectively).
Electrogustometry:
Measures minimum amount of current
required to excite sensation of taste.
Method:
• Small current applied to lateral border of
tongue(−8 dB)
• Current slowly increased until patient a
ble to perceive the mettalic taste.
• Normal threshold:1mA
• 4mA in chorda tympani involvement.
References:
• Grey,s anatomy,
• B.D .chaurashia
• Orban,s
• Textbook of physiology – guyton
• Sensory malfunction : taste
• Appleyard D.A cold left me unable to smell or taste
for two years, 29 january 2012.
• mandibular nerve involvement in diabetic
polyneuropathy mucle nerve 1998:21(12):1673-9
Thank you