Many animals taste and smell their environment through the same part of their body, but can the same be true about humans? New research suggests that this might indeed be the case and that we may have smell receptors on our tongues.

Share on Pinterest A new study suggests that the human tongue may be able to do much more than taste.

Unlike humans and other mammals, not all animals have noses with smell receptors, but this does not mean that they have no sense of smell.

For instance, crabs capture smells through the sensory bristles on their antennae, while snakes, although they do have nostrils, actually smell better through their mouths, “fishing” for scents with their forked tongues.

However, smell and taste usually work together in allowing animals to navigate the world. This collaboration is obvious in snails, for instance, whose lower tentacles allow them to smell and taste their environment.

Taste and smell also work as complementary senses in humans. Olfactory (smell) inputs from the nostrils and gustatory (taste) inputs from the tongue interact in the brain to create a complete picture of what, for example, a person is preparing to eat or drink.

Nevertheless, so far, researchers have tended to believe that the senses of taste and smell operate individually in humans and other mammals.

However, a study that Current Biology published earlier this year found that when scientists removed the taste cortex from the brains of rats, this affected not only the animals’ ability to perceive taste but also their sense of smell.

Similar research has now led Dr. Mehmet Hakan Ozdener and colleagues from the Monell Center in Philadelphia, PA, to investigate whether mammals — including humans — can also smell with their tongues.