Gustatory hairs are anatomical hairlike structures located in the mouth, especially in the tongue. These connect the gustatory cells to the gustatory bud, which means the gustatory hair s are the structures where taste is first detected and this is taken to the gustatory bud and gustatory cells where taste is identified as sweet, sour, salty, umami or bitter. Due to their function for taste, these structures can be compared to the olfactory hairs that play an important role in smell sense because these similarly to gustatory hairs recept smells and transmit it to specialized cells or receptors that process it. According to this, gustatory hairs are to taste as olfactory hairs are to smell.
