Are kids taste buds different from adults?
Recent studies are changing the way science looks at the sense of taste in a number of significant ways. For over a generation, school children have been taught that the tongue could distinguish four tastes: salty, sweet, bitter and sour. Recently, a new taste has been added, the flavor-enhancing taste associated with MSG, and others may follow. We used to think that variations in taste conformed to a specific geographical pattern across the tongue too, with sweet and salty tastes registering on the tip of the tongue, and sour taking over along the sides. Now, we know that many areas of the mouth can record multiple tastes, although some taste receptors are better at distinguishing certain tastes, like sweet, than others [source: Berry]. The Anatomy of Taste These revelations in the way we experience one of o
