Tongue
Q: What is the tongue?
Answer:
The 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.
Q: Where are foliate papillae found?
Answer:
The foliate papillae are found on either side of the back of the tongue which resemble rough tissue folds. There are roughly 20 foliate papillae on each person, and each one houses several hundred taste buds.
Q: Define the term Deglutition.
Answer:
Swallowing, also known as deglutition in medical settings, is the physiological process in which food or other liquids move from the mouth down the pharynx and esophagus while the epiglottis is closed.
Q: Name the intrinsic muscles of the tongue.
Answer:
They are the transverse muscle, the vertical muscle, the inferior longitudinal muscle, and the superior longitudinal muscle.
Tongue Structure – Parts of Tongue
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.