How Much Do You Know About Your Tongue?

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  • Question 1/10
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    How many muscles make up your tongue?

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    How many muscles make up your tongue?

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    It looks like it’s one big muscle, but your tongue is actually a bundle of four that help it change shape, and four more that move it around. All eight are grouped into one big happy tongue family by a mucous membrane.

  • Question 1/10
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    How many taste buds call your tongue home?

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    How many taste buds call your tongue home?

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    The bumps you see and feel on your tongue aren’t taste buds -- they’re called papillae. Just one papilla can have several thousand taste buds inside it. You can also find buds on the inside of your cheeks, the back of your throat, and other parts of your mouth.

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    How often do your taste buds replace themselves?

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    How often do your taste buds replace themselves?

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    Their life cycle is about 14 days. This means that every day, about 10% of the taste buds on your tongue are hit with new flavors for the very first time.

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    Does your sense of taste change as you get older?

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    Does your sense of taste change as you get older?

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    As you age, some of your taste buds stop replacing themselves. That means older adults have only about 5,000 working ones -- that’s roughly half the number kids have.

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    Which of these is not a taste your tongue can detect?

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    Which of these is not a taste your tongue can detect?

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    Science has named five official tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami (savory). Spicy isn’t a taste -- it’s a pain signal. You may think food tastes spicy, but it’s how the nerves in your tongue tell your brain there’s pain and heat in your mouth.

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    True or false: Your taste buds are grouped in “zones” for different flavors.

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    True or false: Your taste buds are grouped in “zones” for different flavors.

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    The sides of your tongue are more sensitive to flavor than the middle, but every part of your tongue can taste all five flavors equally.

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    Which of these is not an actual tongue condition?

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    Which of these is not an actual tongue condition?

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    The hairy type is a harmless buildup of keratin -- the stuff that hair is made of -- on top of your tongue. You get it when you don’t clean your mouth well, if you drink too much tea and coffee, or from certain medications. A scrotal or "fissured" tongue looks wrinkly from the deep grooves this condition causes.

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    People with a heightened sense of taste are called:

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    People with a heightened sense of taste are called:

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    Supertasters are extra sensitive to flavors -- especially bitter and sweet. They have more taste buds on the front of their tongues than most people. And they're more likely to be women than men.

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    True or false: You can roll your tongue only if your parents passed the gene for tongue rolling down to you.

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    True or false: You can roll your tongue only if your parents passed the gene for tongue rolling down to you.

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    • Correct Answer:

    For years, science teachers used tongue rolling as an example of simple genetics. But in 1952, a study using identical twins showed that there’s no gene for it. Genes do play some role in your level of tongue gymnastics, but practice can also make perfect.

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    Can you swallow your tongue?

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    Can you swallow your tongue?

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    You couldn’t gulp down your tongue even if you tried. The base is anchored to the bottom of your mouth with a sturdy membrane. So, it’s swallow-proof! (Thank goodness.)

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    You correctly answered out of questions.

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    You aced the taste test! Savor the sweet flavor of success.

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    Most answers were on the tip of your tongue. A few more right, and you’ll have this quiz licked.

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    Looks like you got tongue-tied. Time to brush up on your tongue facts!

Sources | Reviewed by Alfred D. Wyatt Jr., DMD on May 09, 2018 Medically Reviewed on May 09, 2018

Reviewed by Alfred D. Wyatt Jr., DMD on
May 09, 2018

IMAGE PROVIDED BY:

1) Getty

 

SOURCES:

Medscape: “Tongue Anatomy.”

National Library of Medicine: “How Does Our Sense of Taste Work?”

Kids Health: “What Are Taste Buds?” “Your Tongue.”

Miura, H. Archives Italiennes de Biologie, June 2010.

The American Academy of Oral Medicine: “Hairy Tongue.”

National Organization of Rare Disorders: “Tongue, Fissured.”

Bartoshuk, L. Physiology & Behavior , 1994.

University of Delaware: “Tongue-rolling: The myth.”

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