How does our body actually perceive flavour? What we see on our tongue are three forms of taste papillae. These structures host the much smaller taste buds, and perform various specific functions to enhance our perception of taste, temperature and touch. The taste buds themselves (2000-4000 in total, spread throughout the oral and nasal cavities) each contain 10-50 sensory cells, which are in turn connected to nerve fibres. When the chemicals in our food come in contact with proteins on the surface of the 'taste pore' at the outer reservoir of the taste bud, the cell is activated and produces messenger chemicals to inner nerve cells. These, in turn, pass the information for a particular perception of flavour to the brain.
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