Question

1. Describe in detail a minimum of 4 ways in which taste is an integrated sense. Your answers should reflect the breadth of your understanding.  

Answer 1

• The sense of taste is known as gustation.Like smell it is classified under visceral senses and gustatory receptors are chemoreceptors.
• Flavour of food gives an intricate,rich and pleasurable sensory experience by amalgamating many sensory inputs.
• The sensation that contribute to flavour and make a food enjoytable are sight,smell,taste,temperature and texture ; out of them taste and smell are most important component.
• Tastes is uniquely associated with ingestion. A pleasant taste increases appetite and stimulates the secretion of digestive juices,whereas disagreeable taste may serve as a warning of danger and the food is rejected.
• Taste plays a role in maintaining the nutritional balance. for eg: patients with adrenal insufficiency or salt deprivation exhibit salt preference,When the taste afferents are sectioned the living beings eat and drink indiscriminatley, so tatse is important for normla ingestive behaviour.