Taste

From Seven

Retrieved from Wikipedia 18:42, 9 July 2008 (UTC); modified.

Taste or gustation is one of the two main "chemical" senses (the other being Smell). There are at least four types of tastes that "buds" (receptors) on the tongue detect, and hence there are anatomists who argue that these constitute five or more different senses, given that each receptor conveys information to a slightly different region of the brain. The inability to taste is called ageusia.

The four well-known receptors detect sweet, salt, sour, and bitter, although the receptors for sweet and bitter have not been conclusively identified. A fifth receptor, for a sensation called umami, was first theorized in 1908 and its existence confirmed in 2000. The umami receptor detects the amino acid glutamate, a flavor commonly found in meat and in artificial flavorings such as monosodium glutamate.

Note that taste is not the same as flavor; flavor includes the smell of a food as well as its taste.