Page 138 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste
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banana and
350 in a straw-
berry. 120 The sig-
nificance of this information, which you
may be encountering for the first time, is that the
marvelous laboratory known as the tongue analyzes countless dif-
ferent molecules with unerring accuracy. (Figure 23) So what kind of de-
sign does this talented tongue of yours possess?
There are a large number of nerve fibers in the tongue, a design that
makes it possible to move in all directions with ease. In fact, the tongue is
four times more mobile than our fingers, 121 and assumes important func-
tions in talking, chewing and swallowing. Foods placed in the mouth are
moistened and softened by saliva released by the salivary glands, before
being transmitted to the esophagus. It is at this in-between point that the
tongue’s taste receptors are in their active state. In order to understand
