Anatomy of Tongue

The tongue is a pinkish muscular organ present within the oral cavity of the mouth.

Location of Tongue

The tongue extends from the hyoid bone in the center of the neck to the floor of the mouth.

Parts of Tongue

The average tongue length of a man is 3.3 inches, compared to 3.1 inches for a woman. The average length of the tongue is about 10 cm, though there is a lot of individual variation in this measurement. There are three main parts:

• Tip: The front-most and most movable portion of the tongue is its tip or apex.
• Body: The body of the tongue comes next. It has a smooth ventral (inferior) surface that is connected to the floor of the oral cavity by the lingual frenulum, and a rough dorsal (superior) surface that abuts the palate and is covered in taste buds and lingual papillae.
• Base: The most posterior portion of the tongue is its base. It is covered with foliate papillae along the posterolateral surface and many lymphoid aggregates known as the lingual tonsils.

Papillae

Four different types of papillae exist in humans:

• Filiform: Filiform papillae, which are found in the front two-thirds of the tongue, have the appearance of threads. Filiform papillae are distinct from other papillae types in that they lack taste receptors.
• Fungiform: The mushroom-like form of these papillae gives them their name. Fungiform papillae, which are largely on the sides and tip of the tongue, contain about 1,600 taste buds.
• Circumvallate: The circumvallate papillae are the little bumps on the back of the tongue. They resemble the other kinds of papillae but are bigger and have about 250 taste buds.
• Foliate: The foliate papillae, which are found on either side of the back of the tongue, resemble rough tissue folds. There are roughly 20 foliate papillae on each person, and each one houses several hundred taste buds.

Taste Buds

There are five different gustatory sensations that people can experience. These taste umami, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The taste cells’ apical surface is home to microvilli that have a variety of receptors that can bind to different substances.

Tongue is a movable, flexible organ with muscles found on the floor of the mouth of most vertebrates. It is the major organ of taste and manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive process.  It is coated by mucosa, a wet, pink tissue. It takes part in licking, tasting, breathing, swallowing, and speaking. The rough texture of the tongue is due to the presence of papillae. It is covered by a variety of taste buds. The tongue has many nerves that aid in the transmission of taste information to the brain and hence aid in taste sensation. Old English ‘tunge’, which descended from Proto-Germanic ‘tungōn’, is where the word tongue first appeared.