We all seem to take our tongues for granted but it is an important and interesting “thing.” Without it we could not do things such as taste, talk, chew gum, or, if you are a child on a playground, harass other children. Despite its importance all many people know about it is that it should not be pressed against flagpoles in cold weather. What else should you know about tongues?
The fist thing you should know about the tongue is that it is not an organ as it is commonly called. It is, in fact, a muscular hydostat. If you are unfamiliar with the term it is the same thing that the arms of an octopus are called. It means a muscular structure that has no bone inside and used for manipulation. Our tongue contains 8 different muscles. Of those 8, half of the are connected to bone at one end. With that partial connection to bone we can move food around for proper chewing or change the shape of the in side of out mouths to help form words.
Most of us know that the tongue is responsible for most of our sense of taste. The top of the tongue is covered with papillae, small raised areas. On top of them are the taste buds. These are very small tube like structures filled with tiny “hairs” that receive tiny pieces of chewed food that have been moistened with saliva. So closely related to what we think of hair that the loss of taste buds corresponds with the loss of the hair on the head. The taste buds tell the brain the 5 ways we understand taste. These are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory.
The tongue does more that just taste. It can also be a useful way to ingest medicine that would otherwise be broken down by digestive juices in the stomach. The tissue on the underside of the tongue is thin so it lets things like nitroglycerin pass right into the blood stream.
What about cleaning? Yes, it does that too. Now we have all seen dogs and cats clean their fur with theirs but ours cleans too. Granted, we don’t like our fur or even have fur but it does help clean our teeth.
With out our tongue we would have quite a few limitations