Why Can't I Taste My Tongue?

Your tongue is an amazing sensory instrument -- so why can't it taste itself? Many philosophers have pondered the same thing. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff,
Lauren Vogel bomb Here. It may seem like a ridiculous
question at first, but it's actually a mind bender. Why
can't you taste your tongue? A thirteenth century Indian mystic
deaniche War even used it in contemplation on the very
nature of being. Along with its fellow sense organs of eyes, ears, nose,

(00:25):
and skin, the tongue serves as one of the primary
ways we experience the world and form a working model
of it. The same riddle is frequently applied to the eye.
Though we can certainly see our own eyes and reflections,
we can feel our own skin, though, of course, the
tip of your left index finger can't touch itself, and
the ear cannot hear itself, but neither does it make

(00:45):
a sound. The tongue, however, looks in our mouth like
a layered beast, flip flopping its way through our daily conversations,
tasting our food and occasionally dislodging a little bit of
it from our teeth. Perhaps we're more inclined to ponder
the mystery of the tongue due to its hidden nature
or the many lingering myths regarding its functionality. Tongue rolling,
for instance, is not the simple genetic trait that we

(01:07):
often chalk it up to be. Nor is the tongue
our strongest muscle, and while we're at it, it's a
collection of muscles. Neither is the tongue laid out like
a simple map with different zones for sweet, salty, sour,
and bitter. One of the biggest misconceptions about the tongue, however,
is that it rules alone in its governance of flavor sensations.
The receptor cells in our taste buds certainly carry out

(01:28):
the chemical sensation of taste, but they're located on the
bumpy external surface of our tongue. They're not able to
turn those powers inward on themselves. They collect tactile and
thermal details about any morsel that enters their domain. But
the brain also depends upon your sense of smell to
interpret flavor, So the tongue is not alone in its
taste mission. Your tongue can taste food or the remnants

(01:50):
of food in your mouth. Accidentally bite your tongue and
you can taste the blood trickling out of its own wound.
Fun fact, all that saliva and those blood vessels in
your mouth seem to allow for quick healing. You can
also taste your own saliva, and who hasn't had a
bad taste in their mouth, whether from some aggressive garlic
or an underlying medical condition. And yes, lovebirds, you can
pick up on all these sensations during an open mouth kiss,

(02:12):
but you'll still find yourself at pains to taste an
actual living tongue. Psychologists also talk about the conception of habituation,
or the idea that if a stimulus is presented often
enough or for long enough, we learn to ignore it.
Like that scent you sprits on before you leave the
house that everyone but you can still smell later on
in the day. The inability to taste our tongues could

(02:33):
be an example of that phenomenon. In any case, we
may not be able to taste our tongues for several reasons,
but don't let that stand in the way of a
little mystic naval gazing. Today's episode was written by Robert
Lamb and produced by Tyler Clang. To hear more from Robert,
check out his weird science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

(02:55):
and of course, for lots more on this and other
tasty topics. Visit our home planet, pustuf works dot com,
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