1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff,

2
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:09,680
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb Here. It may seem like a ridiculous

3
00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,040
Speaker 1: question at first, but it's actually a mind bender. Why

4
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:17,560
Speaker 1: can't you taste your tongue? A thirteenth century Indian mystic

5
00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,480
Speaker 1: deaniche War even used it in contemplation on the very

6
00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:25,160
Speaker 1: nature of being. Along with its fellow sense organs of eyes, ears, nose,

7
00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 1: and skin, the tongue serves as one of the primary

8
00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:31,040
Speaker 1: ways we experience the world and form a working model

9
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:34,240
Speaker 1: of it. The same riddle is frequently applied to the eye.

10
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:37,080
Speaker 1: Though we can certainly see our own eyes and reflections,

11
00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:39,760
Speaker 1: we can feel our own skin, though, of course, the

12
00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,280
Speaker 1: tip of your left index finger can't touch itself, and

13
00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:45,919
Speaker 1: the ear cannot hear itself, but neither does it make

14
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:48,800
Speaker 1: a sound. The tongue, however, looks in our mouth like

15
00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,440
Speaker 1: a layered beast, flip flopping its way through our daily conversations,

16
00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:55,320
Speaker 1: tasting our food and occasionally dislodging a little bit of

17
00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,600
Speaker 1: it from our teeth. Perhaps we're more inclined to ponder

18
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:00,840
Speaker 1: the mystery of the tongue due to its hidden nature

19
00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,839
Speaker 1: or the many lingering myths regarding its functionality. Tongue rolling,

20
00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:06,959
Speaker 1: for instance, is not the simple genetic trait that we

21
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:09,520
Speaker 1: often chalk it up to be. Nor is the tongue

22
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:11,880
Speaker 1: our strongest muscle, and while we're at it, it's a

23
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,080
Speaker 1: collection of muscles. Neither is the tongue laid out like

24
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:18,200
Speaker 1: a simple map with different zones for sweet, salty, sour,

25
00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,720
Speaker 1: and bitter. One of the biggest misconceptions about the tongue, however,

26
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,320
Speaker 1: is that it rules alone in its governance of flavor sensations.

27
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,440
Speaker 1: The receptor cells in our taste buds certainly carry out

28
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:31,280
Speaker 1: the chemical sensation of taste, but they're located on the

29
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: bumpy external surface of our tongue. They're not able to

30
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,240
Speaker 1: turn those powers inward on themselves. They collect tactile and

31
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,640
Speaker 1: thermal details about any morsel that enters their domain. But

32
00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:43,920
Speaker 1: the brain also depends upon your sense of smell to

33
00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,720
Speaker 1: interpret flavor, So the tongue is not alone in its

34
00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:50,080
Speaker 1: taste mission. Your tongue can taste food or the remnants

35
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,560
Speaker 1: of food in your mouth. Accidentally bite your tongue and

36
00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,800
Speaker 1: you can taste the blood trickling out of its own wound.

37
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:57,800
Speaker 1: Fun fact, all that saliva and those blood vessels in

38
00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: your mouth seem to allow for quick healing. You can

39
00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,040
Speaker 1: also taste your own saliva, and who hasn't had a

40
00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:05,640
Speaker 1: bad taste in their mouth, whether from some aggressive garlic

41
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,600
Speaker 1: or an underlying medical condition. And yes, lovebirds, you can

42
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:12,320
Speaker 1: pick up on all these sensations during an open mouth kiss,

43
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:14,920
Speaker 1: but you'll still find yourself at pains to taste an

44
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:20,440
Speaker 1: actual living tongue. Psychologists also talk about the conception of habituation,

45
00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:22,960
Speaker 1: or the idea that if a stimulus is presented often

46
00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:25,440
Speaker 1: enough or for long enough, we learn to ignore it.

47
00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:27,720
Speaker 1: Like that scent you sprits on before you leave the

48
00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 1: house that everyone but you can still smell later on

49
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,280
Speaker 1: in the day. The inability to taste our tongues could

50
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,520
Speaker 1: be an example of that phenomenon. In any case, we

51
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,040
Speaker 1: may not be able to taste our tongues for several reasons,

52
00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:40,880
Speaker 1: but don't let that stand in the way of a

53
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:49,120
Speaker 1: little mystic naval gazing. Today's episode was written by Robert

54
00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,040
Speaker 1: Lamb and produced by Tyler Clang. To hear more from Robert,

55
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,960
Speaker 1: check out his weird science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

56
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,720
Speaker 1: and of course, for lots more on this and other

57
00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:12,480
Speaker 1: tasty topics. Visit our home planet, pustuf works dot com,

58
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:12,120
Speaker 1: m