Fungiform papillae taste system

The fungiform papillae taste systems consist of taste bud receptors distributed on the fungiform papillae which are located on the anterior surface of the tongue and the peripheral sensory neurons in the geniculate ganglion of the facial nerve. These neurons collect sensory information relevant to the chemical nature of food substances in the mouth. This chemosensory information is encoded into a series of pulses and transmitted to the central nervous system over nerve fibers that stretch from the tongue to the central nervous system (Figure 3). These pulse trains can be measured electrically with microelectrodes in the... 

By flavor chemistry is meant the chemistry of the total complement of sensory responses elicited by a food or a food component. In human sensory research, the sensory responses are psychophysical sensations, whereas in neurophysiological studies the responses are measured from neurons. The flavor chemistry of the geniculate ganglion fungiform papillae taste systems would then consist of a description of the neural responses to foods and to the types of compounds present in food. The neural responses of both the dog and the cat have been examined with respect to the excitability of many of the compounds found in vertebrate tissues. The cat has been tested with more compounds than the dog, but the results will also apply in large part to the dog, since the two species are so similar with respect to the majority of the compounds considered. 

Table III Major Chemical Stimulus Factors of Importance In Carnivore Fungiform Papillae Taste Systems...

Studies on human taste sensations confirm and extend our understanding of the types of chemical signals measured by these oral chemoreceptor systems. There are, for instance, several distinct sensations elicited by chemical stimulation of fungiform papillae innervated by the geniculate ganglion, indicating that a neural functional complexity similar to that described above for... 

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