FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

KUALA LUMPUR CAMPUS

Semester:​ ​[ ] May [ / ] September [ ] January (​please “​✓​”)

Academic Year:​ 2018​
Course Code & Title: ​AACB 1243 RESPONSE AND COORDINATION
Programme: ​Diploma in Science (Chemistry and Biology )
Student’s Name (Registration Number):​ Chin Jia Yue (18WLD03979)
Submission Date:

Declaration
I confirm that I have read and shall comply with all the terms and condition of TAR
College’s plagiarism policy.
I declare that this assignment is free from all forms of plagiarism and for all intents and
purposes is my own properly derived work.

Signature(s):_______________________________________

Name(s):_____________________________________

Date: ___________________
Title:
Special Sense I: taste and hearing

Objectives:
1. To investigate the condition (moisture) in tasting;
2. To examine the position of different taste buds;
3. To study the sense of hearing;

Introduction:
​Taste is ​the sensation of flavour perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a
substance. For the detection of tastant, epithelial specializations in the oral cavity are
equipped with taste receptor that interact with sweet, umami ( the taste of L-amino acids),
salty, sour and bitter-tasting substances (Dietmar, 2016). The sense of taste come from special
areas on the tongue called taste buds which works to produce the sense of taste that are
interpreted by the brain ( Rita & Lisa, 1996).
Taste buds are composed of groups of between 50 and 150 columnar taste receptor cells
bundled together like a cluster of bananas. The taste receptor cells within a bud are arranged
such that their tips form a small taste pore, and through this pore extend microvilli from the
taste cells. The microvilli of the taste cells bear taste receptors. Interwoven among the taste
cells in a taste bud is a network of dendrites of sensory nerves called "taste nerves". When
taste cells are stimulated by binding of chemicals to their receptors, they depolarize and this
depolarization is transmitted to the taste nerve fibers resulting in an action potential that is
ultimately transmitted to the brain.
Once taste signals are transmitted to the brain, several efferent neural pathways are activated
that are important to digestive function. For example, tasting food is followed rapidly by
increased salivation and by low level secretory activity in the stomach. There are only five
kinds of taste bud receptors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Each taste receptor works
differently. It is sometimes thought that the tongue has a ‘taste map’. In fact, taste buds with
different receptors are present all over the tongue. However, some areas of the tongue may be
more responsive to certain tastes than other areas ( Daniel, 2011).
Hearing is one of the five senses. A pair of ears helps to pick up the sound that travel
through the air in waves. A sound source is an object that pressure fluctuation. This pressure
fluctuation needs energy to produce sound waves. The sound wave travels in the air, collected
by pinna and leads into auditory canal and reaches the tympanic membrane, which is known
as eardrum. It hits on the eardrum to produce vibration. The malleus that connects to
tympanic membrane will receive the sound waves and amplify the vibrations across the other
ossicles (incus and stapes) in the middle ear. The ossicles will then create an even greater
vibration as the sound wave moves through and will push it into the oval window, which is
connected to the stapes. These vibrations in the oval window will generate fluid within the
vestibular duct to move the wave into the cochlear duct. These waves in the fluid within the
cochlear duct push against the flexible membrane of the cochlear duct, causing waves to
occur in the fluid within the tympanic duct, which are dissipated back into the air in the
middle ear by movement of the round window. The waves in the fluid within the tympanic
duct also cause the tectorial membrane to bounce, causing stereocilia on the hair cell to bend.
In addition, movement of the basilar membrane also cause the hair cells to bend. When the
stereocilia bent, ion channels open and release neurotransmitters into the synapse in the
sensory neurons. Causing it to change the rate of the AP firing to the brain via the cochlear
nerve (CN VIII). The cochlear nerve carries the impulse to the primary auditory neurons in
the medulla. Then the info will go to the secondary sensory neurons in the midbrain and
thalamus before projecting into the auditory cortex. ( Jennifer, 2009)
Sound is a kind of wave also a vibrations with energy that travel through air. In the traveling,
the energy is keep passing from an air molecule to another. This passing process will cause
the energy to decrease due to the friction with other air molecules or lost as heat. Therefore,
the more molecules that the energy has passed, the less energy left. In the other word, the
intensity of sound decreases as the distance from the source increases (Alton & Ken, 2009).
Sound from a point source travels outward spherically. Thus sometimes we cannot sense the
direction of a sound source correctly since the sound wave will spread.
In this experiment, the investigations about sense of taste and hearing are conducted. The
study of moisture in tasting and sensitivity of the tongue to different tastes are carried out in
investigation 1 and 2. Investigation 3 and 4 is about the test of sensitivity to sound as well as
hearing ability.

Material:
Long toothpicks, sweet solution, sour solution, bitter solution, salt solution, ticking watch,
meter ruler

Procedure:
Investigation 1 (Moisture in tasting)
1. Saliva in mouth was swallowed so as to dry the tongue.
2. A lump of sugar was placed in the dry tongue and tried to taste it.
3. Then, the tongue was wet by saliva and the sugar lump was placed on the tongue again.
4. Both conclusion of step 2 and 3 was recorded in table.

​Investigation 2 (Sensitivity of the tongue to different taste)

1. 4 solutions were provided: sweet, sour, salt and bitter.
2. The subject’s saliva was swallowed to dry the tongue.
3. The tongue outline was drawn on paper.
 4. A drop of one of the solutions was pick up in the end of toothpick and it was touch on
different parts of tongue of subject. ( subject was asked to close her eyes so that she do
not know what is the solution). All regions in Figure 1 were tested equally.
5. A cross was put on the drawing of the tongue to indicate the areas sensitive to the
solution.
6. The tongue of subject was washed and repeated the experiment with other solutions.
7. The drawing of the sensitive region of tongue to four solutions was included in result.

Figure 1: Region of tongue

Investigation 3 (Sensitivity to sound)

1. The subject was asked to close her eyes.
2. A ticking watch was held by the partner, in turn above, behind and in front of the
subject.
3. The watch was kept equidistant from both her ears.
4. The position of the watch was tried to indicated by the subject.
5. The experiment was repeated by holding the watch in similar position, but to the sides
of the subject.

Investigation 4 (Hearing ability)

Work in quiet place.
1. A ticking watch was held by partner close to subject’s ear and the watch was moved
away from subject gradually until she cannot hear it.
2. The distance that the subject cease to hear the watch was noted down.
3. Then, the ticking watch was held by the partner out of the subject’s hearing range, then
the watch was moved toward the subject gradually until she can just hear it.
4. The distance that the subject start to hear the watch was noted.
5. Both of the distances were compared.
Result:
Table 1: Results for each investigations

Investigation Result

Investigation 1: Dry: Cannot taste the sugar

Moisture in
tasting Wet: Can taste the sugar

Investigation 2: Sweet Sour

Sensitivity of the
tongue to different
tastes

Salty Bitter

Investigation 3: Equidistant from both ears Side to the subject

Sensitivity to sound In front: wrong In front: correct
Above: correct Above: correct
Behind: correct Behind: correct

Investigation 4: Distance that the subject Distance that the subject start
Hearing ability cease to hear the watch: 50 to hear the watch: 78 cm
cm

Conclusion:
​In conclusion, moisture is needed in tongue to sense the taste. ​The taste buds for sweet are
on the tip of the tongue, the salt taste buds are on either side of the front of the tongue, sour
taste buds are behind the salt taste buds, and bitter taste buds are at the back of tongue. The
sound of ticking watch when it was at the side of ear was clearer than when it was equidistant
from both ears. The distance that the subject start to hear the watch is longer than the distance
that she cease to hear the watch.
Reference:
1. Alton E, Ken P. 2009. ​Master Handbook of Acoustics​. USA: The McGraw-Hills
Companies.
2. Daniel L. 2011. ​The Evolution of the Human Head​. England: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press.
​ aste and Smell​. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
3. Dietmar K. 2016.​ T
4. Jennifer B. 2009. ​What is Hearing?​ USA: Lerner Publications Company.
5. Rita F, Lisa S. 1996. Introduction to Nursing Assisting: Building Language Skills.​ USA:
Delmar Learning.