There are sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes, but what determines if something tastes spicy?

Kainantu

Spiciness is due to the sensation of pain. The receptors to taste in humans, called taste buds, are small chemosensory receptor cells. They are sensitive to sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami (MSG) tastes. Spicy food is a small pain in the tongue. Taste buds are located on the tongue, hard and soft palates, larynx, pharynx, epiglottis and the {tonsils;} essentially throughout your mouth and top of your throat. However most taste buds are located on the tongue within different types of papillae. The bumps you see on your tongue are the papillae, not the taste buds. http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/psych431/student2000/mle6/physiology.ht Because of different tastes, man has a variety of food. Many races prefer spicy food. Spicy foods taste the way they do because they cause an intense reaction in the taste buds. Spiciness is actually the sensation of pain in the taste buds! http://www.apol.net/dightonrock/paint%20them.htm The tongue can also tell if the food is hot or cold and also the 'spicy hotness' which actually causes a mild pain in the tongue. http://sln.fi.edu/qa97/me12/me12.html Pain fibres (in the tongue) may enhance the sensation of spicy foods. These are naked nerve endings (mainly unmyelinated) outside the taste bud and carried via the Trigeminal nerve. http://www.umds.ac.uk/physiology/jim/tasteolf.htm Feb 04 03, 8:14 AM