Science College, General Science Dept

Organs that taste:

The tongue also responds to stimulation. The tongue sends signals to the olfactory lobe. Taste receptors allow a cat’s tongue to recognize or detect substances that dissolve in water or saliva while eating or licking food.

A cat’s tongue is loaded with sensory receptors. I bet any human that has ever been licked by a cat has noticed that it feels rough, like a comb or sandpaper. Ask your human about this. Why? Why does this feel rough? This is because the human felt the papillae the on the tongue. This vocabulary word might be a good word to remember for the exam. It might also be a good word to know if you need to impress someone or are taking a general knowledge type test. To get back to papillae: What are they, how do we understand these. Well, there are several kinds of these, some papillae carry taste and some don’t. Scientist extensively mapped the areas of the tongue according to responsiveness. They compared several mammals and the results. What is notable about cats is that they are not attracted to sweets. In compensation, they have a great attraction to water. And since cats don’t like sweets many cats cannot tolerate lactose with its milk-sugar content. Cats are sensitive to water and it is one of the few times they prefer sugar to salt in water when these are the choices available to them.

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