Caption

Taste and smell physiology. Illustration of a human head, showing the mouth and nose, and the taste and smell centre of the brain. The insets at left show the anatomy of the papillae and taste buds (lower left) of the tongue, and the taste pores (upper left). After chemical particles trigger signals in the tongue, the taste information (red arrows) is transmitted by the lingual, vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves to the medulla oblongata in the brainstem. Smell information (white arrows) arrives at the olfactory bulb. Although the senses of taste and smell are separate, the information received is integrated at a brain location called the orbitofrontal cortex. It is this integration of the two senses that often gives rise to what is called taste. For this illustration with labels, see image C036/7683.