Taste buds detect gustatory stimuli. Taste buds are located on several kinds of papillae on the tongue and in the pharynx and larynx. The taste afferent fibers synapse in the nucleus of the solitary tract.
Higher pathways differ in different species.
Odors are detected by olfactory chemoreceptor cells in the olfactory mucosa. At least six elementary odor qualities are encoded by the population of olfactory afferent nerves. The olfactory chemoreceptor cells project to the olfactory bulb, where they synapse in olfactory glomeruli on the dendrites of mitral and tufted cells. Local inhibitory dendrodendritic circuits are formed by the granule cells. The mitral and tufted cells project to the olfactory tract.