Genetic and pathological taste variation: what can we learn from animal models and human disease?

Abstract excerpt

The study of patients with taste disorders (i.e. 'experiments of nature') suggests that the old tongue maps (e.g. sweet on the tip, bitter on the back) that often appear in textbooks are wrong. If they were correct, severing the taste nerves that innervate the front of the tongue would result in a loss of the ability to taste sweet, etc. This does not occur. Severing these nerves has little effect on everyday...

Topics

• Animals
• Disease Models, Animal
• Genetic Variation
• Humans
• Taste Disorders
• Tongue