Role in The Taste Pathway
Like the olfactory system, the taste system is defined by its specialized peripheral receptors and central pathways that relay and process taste information. Peripheral taste receptors are found on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, pharynx, and the upper part of the esophagus. Taste cells synapse with primary sensory axons that run in the chorda tympani and greater superficial petrosal branches of the facial nerve (cranial nerve VII), the lingual branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve (cranial nerve IX), and the superior laryngeal branch of the vagus nerve (Cranial nerve X) to innervate the taste buds in the tongue, palate, epiglottis, and esophagus respectively. The central axons of these primary sensory neurons in the respective cranial nerve ganglia project to rostral and lateral regions of the nucleus of the solitary tract in the medulla, which is also known as the gustatory nucleus of the solitary tract complex. Axons from the rostral (gustatory) part of the solitary nucleus project to the ventral posterior complex of the thalamus, where they terminate in the medial half of the ventral posterior medial nucleus. This nucleus projects in turn to several regions of the neocortex which includes the gustatory cortex (the frontal operculum and the insula), which becomes activated when the subject is consuming and experiencing taste.
Read more about this topic: Gustatory Cortex
Famous quotes containing the words role in the, role, taste and/or pathway:
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“But however the forms of family life have changed and the number expanded, the role of the family has remained constant and it continues to be the major institution through which children pass en route to adulthood.”
—Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)
“Wise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“And open field, through which the pathway wound,
And homeward led my steps. Magnificent
The morning rose, in memorable pomp,
Glorious as e’er I had beheld—in front,
The sea lay laughing at a distance; near,
The solid mountains shone, bright as the clouds,
Grain-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light;”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)