Question:easy
Taste absent in which taste bud?
Taste absent in which taste bud?
Show Hint
Which tongue papilla is the only one with no taste buds and is purely mechanical?
Updated On: Jun 22, 2026
- Filliform
- Foliate
- Papilla
- Circumvallate
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Frame this by sorting the tongue papillae into "can taste" versus "cannot taste."
There are four named papillae on the tongue. Three of them house taste buds and contribute to gustation, while one is purely mechanical:
Have taste buds (taste present):
- Fungiform papillae - mushroom-shaped, scattered over the anterior tongue.
- Foliate papillae - leaf-like folds at the posterolateral edges.
- Circumvallate (vallate) papillae - large dome papillae in a V just in front of the sulcus terminalis, the most taste-bud-rich of all.
No taste buds (taste absent):
- Filiform papillae - slender, keratinised, cone-shaped, and by far the most numerous. They give the tongue its rough texture and handle touch/abrasion but contain no taste buds at all.
The question asks where taste is absent, so we need the lone papilla without taste buds. That is the filiform papilla.
Eliminating the others: foliate and circumvallate both taste, so they are wrong, and "papilla" alone is just a category word, not a specific taste-free structure.
Hence taste is absent in the filiform papilla (option A).
There are four named papillae on the tongue. Three of them house taste buds and contribute to gustation, while one is purely mechanical:
Have taste buds (taste present):
- Fungiform papillae - mushroom-shaped, scattered over the anterior tongue.
- Foliate papillae - leaf-like folds at the posterolateral edges.
- Circumvallate (vallate) papillae - large dome papillae in a V just in front of the sulcus terminalis, the most taste-bud-rich of all.
No taste buds (taste absent):
- Filiform papillae - slender, keratinised, cone-shaped, and by far the most numerous. They give the tongue its rough texture and handle touch/abrasion but contain no taste buds at all.
The question asks where taste is absent, so we need the lone papilla without taste buds. That is the filiform papilla.
Eliminating the others: foliate and circumvallate both taste, so they are wrong, and "papilla" alone is just a category word, not a specific taste-free structure.
Hence taste is absent in the filiform papilla (option A).
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