How Many Basic Tastes Do We Have? Four? Five? Six? More?

As children, we all learn that there are 4 basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami (savory) was discovered in 1909, but recognized more generally since the 1980s. But there have been a number of other additional basic tastes also proposed that many may not have heard of: Calcium Fatty (Oleogustus) Metallic Heartiness or Mouthfulness Should one include taste senses due to the somatosensory system, one can potentially include these basic tastes: Pungency, spiciness, h…

8/03/2015 0

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Men's Ability to Taste Linked to Fertility?

Image by  צביה   from Wikipedia Researchers found that two proteins that govern the ability to taste sweet and savory profoundly influenced sperm development. This surprising connection between taste and male fertility occurred when the gene encoding the taste receptor proteins TAS1R3 (part of savory taste receptor) and GNAT3 (converts oral taste signal to a nerve signal) were modified in mice allowing for selective knockout with the drug clofibrate. When these genetically modified mic…

7/03/2013 0

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Tongue Taste Map is a LIE!

As children, we all learned about the 4 different taste qualities the human tongue can appreciate: salty, sugar, bitter, and sour. Savory or umami was added in 1985. " Calcium " has been proposed in 2008 as well as more recently, " fatty " taste (oleogustus). Along with the 5 (and possibly more) taste qualities we all had to memorize at some point, we also had to memorize the taste map of the tongue (yes... I know umami is missing): Well... what a waste of time to memori…

3/21/2012 0

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