SENSE OF TASTE

Taste (or, more formally, gustation; adjectival form: "gustatory") is one of the traditional
five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals,
and poisons, etc.
Organs: Humans receive tastes through sensory organs called TASTE BUDS, or gustatory
calyculi,mostly located on the tongue but also found on the soft palate, pharynx and epiglottis. The
number of taste buds declines with age.
Structure of Taste Buds:
Each taste bud is an oval body consisting of three kinds of cells.
• Gustatory Receptor Cells: They bear at the free end microvilli projecting into taste pore. The
microvilli have special protein receptor sites for taste-producing molecules and come in contact with
the food being eaten. These cells survive only about 10 days and are then replaced by new cells.
• Supporting cells: These cells lie between the gustatory receptor cells in the taste bud.
• Basal cells: These cells are found in the periphery of taste bud. They produce supporting cells,
which then develop into gustatory receptor cells.

Functions
Our primary taste sensations are sweet sour salty n bitter.but we can also taste metallic n alkaline
substances.most likely,all taste cells can can interpret all of these flavours,but taste cells probably
have their responsiveness to sweetness may be most pronounced at the tip of the tongue,sourness
at the margins of the tongue,saltiness throught the tongue and bitterness at far end of the tongue

SENSE OF HEARING
Hearing (or audition; adjectival form: "auditory" or "aural") is one of the traditional five senses. It is the
ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear.
Organs The ear is the organ of hearing in humans.
Structure
The outer ear funnels vibrations to the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, which transmits the
vibrations to three inner earbones: the malleus (hammer), the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup).
These bones transmit the vibrations to the inner ear where the receptor of hearing, the cochlea, is
located. The cochlea is a snail-like series of coiled tubes within the skull. As the earbones vibrate,
they push and pull a membrane at one end of the cochlea, causing fluid within the tubules to vibrate.
The vibrations are detected by sensitive hair cells, and nerve impulses are generated. The auditory
nerve carries the impulses to the brain for interpretation.

Functions
When an object makes a noise, it sends vibrations (better known as sound waves) speeding through
the air. These vibrations are then funneled into your ear canal by your outer ear. As the vibrations
move into your middle ear, they hit your eardrum and cause it to vibrate as well. This sets off a chain
reaction of vibrations. Your eardrum, which is smaller and thinner than the nail on your pinky finger,
vibrates the three smallest bones in your body: first, the hammer, then the anvil, and finally, the
stirrup. The stirrup passes the vibrations into a coiled tube in the inner ear called the cochlea. The
fluid-filled cochlea contains thousands of hair-like nerve endings called cilia. When the stirrup causes
the fluid in the cochlea to vibrate, the cilia move. The cilia change the vibrations into messages that
are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve carries messages from 25,000
receptors in your ear to your brain. Your brain then makes sense of the messages and tells you what
sounds you are hearing.
SENSE OF SMELL
Olfaction (also known as olfactics; adjectival form: "olfactory") is the sense of smell. This sense is
mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory
cells of the antennae of invertebrates
Organs The nose is the organ responsible for the sense of smell.
Structure
The cavity of the nose is lined with mucous membranes that have smell receptors connected to the
olfactory nerve. The smells themselves consist of vapors of various substances. The smell receptors
interact with the molecules of these vapors and transmit the sensations to the brain. The nose also
has a structure called the vomeronasal organ whose function has not been determined, but which is
suspected of being sensitive to pheromones that influence the reproductive cycle. The smell
receptors are sensitive to seven types of sensations that can be characterized as camphor, musk,
flower, mint, ether, acrid, or putrid. The sense of smell is sometimes temporarily lost when a person
has a cold. Dogs have a sense of smell that is many times more sensitive than man's.