Functions of Tongue
Functions of the tongue include:
- Taste: On its dorsal surface, the tongue has several taste buds, each of which has taste receptor cells that can detect a specific class of flavors.
- Mastication: The tongue plays a significant supporting role in the digestive system. The tongue is utilized for mastication, or crushing food on the hard palate, and for manipulating food to soften it before swallowing.
- Speech: The extrinsic muscles that move the tongue and the intrinsic muscles that alter its form make the tongue one of the main articulators in the creation of speech.
- Deglutition: 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.
- Secretion: The tongue has glands called sublingual glands. Hundreds of tiny glands are also present. These glands produce saliva (spit), which they then release through duct-like apertures into the mouth. Food becomes moist due to saliva, which facilitates chewing, swallowing, and food digestion.
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.