Research in the 1980s and 1990s, however, demonstrated that the “tongue map” explanation of how we taste was, in fact, totally wrong.
The tongue was mapped into separate areas where certain tastes were registered: sweetness at the tip, sourness on the sides, and bitterness at the back of the mouth. ( ① ) As it turns out, the map was a misinterpretation and mistranslation of research conducted in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. ( ② ) Today, leading taste researchers believe that taste buds are not grouped according to specialty. ( ③ ) Sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, and sourness can be tasted everywhere in the mouth, although they may be perceived at a little different intensities at different sites. ( ④ ) Moreover, the mechanism at work is not place, but time. ( ⑤ ) It’s not that you taste sweetness at the tip of your tongue, but rather that you register that perception first.
* taste bud: 미뢰