Kaplan Nursing Entrance Practice Exam

What do taste buds on the tongue primarily detect?

1. Temperature

2. Smell

3. Taste

4. Texture

The correct answer is: Taste

Taste buds on the tongue primarily detect taste, which involves identifying the basic flavors such as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). These sensory structures are specialized cells that interact with chemical substances in food and beverages, translating these interactions into signals sent to the brain, where the perception of flavor occurs. While temperature, smell, and texture play roles in the overall food experience, they are not the primary functions of taste buds. Temperature is perceived through thermoreceptors in the skin and tissues, smell is linked to olfactory receptors located in the nasal cavity, and texture is sensed through mechanoreceptors that respond to physical characteristics of food. Hence, it is the taste buds that are specifically tuned to detect and differentiate between various chemical substances, making taste the correct answer.