Anatomy of Taste Buds

Anatomy of Taste Buds The oral cavity and its anatomy play a key role in understanding taste and its biological function in the human body. The oral cavity consists of your lips, cheeks, teeth, tongue and throat. The taste buds are the chemoreceptors that detect and relay taste stimuli. In order for the taste buds to detect the taste of food or drink, the molecule must be suspended in an aqueous solution, otherwise known as saliva. Most taste buds are found within specialized projections on the tongue called papillae (Seeley, Stephens, they do not house taste buds but they do provide the rough surface on the tongue that allows for easier manipulation of food (Seeley, Stephens, â€Å"Eight to 12 of these papillae form a V-shaped row along the border between the anterior and posterior parts of the tongue† (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). Each person has roughly 10,000 taste buds on their tongue, and each taste bud contains three distinct types of specialized epithelial cells within them. â€Å"T he sensory cells of each taste bud consist of about 50 taste, or gustatory cells. The remaining two cell types, which are nonsensory cells, are basal cells and supporting cells† (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). Each taste cell has gustatory hairs, which are specialized microvilli, that help direct the tastants, or substances dissolved in saliva, into the taste, or gustatory, pore (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). Several secondary sensory neurons connect to each taste bud and release neurotransmitters when stimulated. Sensory information from the oral cavity can travel to the brain in three different ways. The tongue itself is broken down into thirds. Sensory information from the anterior, or front, two-thirds of the tongue is transmitted to the brain via a branch of the facial nerve (cranial nerve VII) called the chorda tympani (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). Information from the posterior, or back, one-third of the tongue, the circumvallate papillae, and the superior phar ynx is carried by the glossopharyngeal nerve (cranial nerve IX) (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). The vagus nerve (cranial nerve X) transmits information from the epiglottis, which is located in the back of the throat (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). The olfactory region also has a substantial role in taste so it warrants a brief anatomical discussion as well. Olfaction is our sense of smell and it is a response to odorants that stimulate sensory receptors that are located in the extreme superior region of the nasal cavity (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). The ten million olfactory neurons that are located in the olfactory region of the nasal cavity then travel through foramen in the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone in the bottom of the skull and terminate into the olfactory bulb that’s just above the cribriform plate (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008). The olfactory tract then takes the signal from the olfactory bulb to the cerebral cortex (Seeley, Stephens, & Tate, 2008) . This is a simplified version of the much more complex biological process that is olfaction, but it is sufficient for the depth of this paper.

DB2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DB2 - Essay Example The walls of this building are light colored. This building was constructed to replace the temple of the goddess Athena (Boardman, 1996). The look and feel of the building represent the religious and mythical feeling typical to Greek Art. The The Roman Arch of Constantine is in fact a symbol of victory for the Romans. Constantine won the battle of Milvian bridge in 312 CE and this building was constructed as a triumphal arch of Romans. It is one of the latest existing arches which fall in this category (Henderson and Beard, 2001). Both of these pieces of art are objective and represent a great achievement or cultural attitude of the time of construction. The Arch is a typical rectangular building which has sharp edges. The Greek Temple building is also rectangular but it is more aesthetically pleasing. The first building represents a very important religious aspect of Greeks. The Greeks believed in goddess of Athena and to make her happy, they replaced the earlier temple with this ne wer and grander one. It represents the closeness of Greeks with their gods and mythology. The artists who have worked on this piece of art have tried to convey the religious aspects of Greek life and have done that successfully. The second building is a symbol of victory (Henderson and Beard, 2001). It has the specific toughness. The look of this building can be easily related to a grand military victory.

The Home Video Game Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Home Video Game - Case Study Example Nintendo is a one-century old video game company in Japan. Before diversifying into the video game business, Nintendo had built up a card playing business. Nintendo Company is located in Kyoto and is managed by Yamauchi family. It started diversifying into the video game business in the 1970s. Nintendo acquired a video game technology license from Magnavox. The company introduced a home video game system in Japan in 1977. The game was based on the technology which played a Pong variation. Later, in 1978, Nintendo started selling coin-operated video games. Nintendo encountered the first hit with Donkey Kong, a company designed by Shigeru Miyamoto (Hill 20). Capabilities and competitive advantage that led to Nintendo’s success in the home game industry included the decision of the company’s manager which involved Nintendo developing its own video game machine. The manager pushed the engineers of the company to construct high-quality machines. The machines combined high graphics capabilities and their cost was low. They were sold at a half price less than the competing machines (Hill 20). The designed machines were based on consoles, controllers, and plugs in the cartridge format. The machines were made up of two chips which included an eight-bit processing unit and a graphics processing unit. Each chip performed an essential function. To lower the cost of the machines, the manager avoided using the 16-bit processor that was available at that time. The most important aspect of Nintendo Company’s strategy was the creation of cheap but high-quality games. Another important aspect was creating games with few instructions. The environment of the home video game does not allow for a single company to remain dominant over a long period. This is because success in the industry attracts many competitors.  Ã‚