Overview
Taste is a chemical sense. The sensory experience is produced by stimulation of specific receptors in the oral cavity. The gross anatomy (peripheral and central nervous system) of taste, microscopic and ultrastructural morphology of taste buds, physiology of taste (modalities, distribution of taste sensations, electrophysiology of the receptors, mechanism and intensity of stimulation, and taste contrasts), as well as a few clinical applications, are discussed in this article.
The anatomy of the taste system is displayed in the image below.
Diagram of the chorda tympani and relations to the petrosal nerves.