CBC Maritimes

Your tongue and the roof of your mouth are covered with thousands of tiny taste buds. When you eat, saliva helps break down your food, and receptor cells located in your taste buds send messages through sensory nerves to your brain, which then tells you what flavors you are tasting.

Yum, Yum: Each day the approximately 10,000 taste buds in your mouth sort through and react to the variety of food and drink you consume. But what is actually going on, and what's the connection between your brain and your lips, tongue and mouth? Our Science Panel served up a delicious analysis and tasty assessment of our sense of taste. The Science Panel is, of course, Dr Mary Anne White, University Research Professor of Chemistry & Physics at Dalhousie University, and Dr. Richard Wassersug, Professor of Biology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, also at Dalhousie. They also answered all your questions about The Science of Everyday Life.