Page 154 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste

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The Sense of Taste in the Brain
The nerves in your body work far more perfectly than the postal sys-

tem of a developed country. Every day since you were born, and even ev-
ery moment, they have carried information to exactly the right addresses
with an extraordinary success, never losing any information. In your
brain there are around 100 billion nerve cells. 140 When you eat or drink
anything, three nerves related to taste carry the message they receive from
your taste cells to the relevant addresses from among those 100 billion. In
addition, they do this impeccably, for so long as you live.
The diameter of these nerves is less than 0.004 of a millimeter
(0.000157 of an inch). 141 Taste messages are transmitted to the brain by the
chorda tympani nerve from the front two-thirds of the tongue, and from the

rear third by the glossopharyngeal nerve. The vagus nerve transmits to the
brain the taste signals it receives from the back of the mouth. 142 (Figure
32) These three nerves send the reports from tens of thousands of taste
cells to the region known as the brain stalk. From there, taste data go to

(Figure 32)
The Chorda tympani
(1), glossopharyngeal
(2) and vagus (3)
5 nerves combine in
the spinal bulb (4),
6 from whence they
4 carry messages to
the relevant sections
of the brain (5)–(6).

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The Miracles of Smell and
Taste