Lecture 8 – Gustation (Taste) (Chemical senses 1)

All lecture material from the following links unless otherwise mentioned:
1.
http://www.ib.cnea.gov.ar/~redneu/2013/BOOKS/Principles%20of%20Neural%20Science%20-%20Kandel/gateway.ut.ovid.com/g
w2/ovidweb.cgisidnjhkoalgmeho00dbookimagebookdb_7c_2fc~38.htm
2. Research papers or other links mentioned on slide

Raghav Rajan
Bio 354 – Neurobiology 2
February 05th 2015
1
 From earlier classes ...!!

● Aperture control (Vishnu)

● Pin-wheel centers – orientation tuning (Ruchi)
● Responses to natural scenes (Radhika)

2
 Taste – processing, function, etc.

● Chemicals sensed using the tongue

● Good food vs. bad food, poisons, etc.
● Flavour, quality of food
● To ensure that all nutrients are obtained in correct amounts
● How are chemicals sensed?
● Taste coding
– Identity
– Intensity
– Location
– Timing
● Higher order functions
– Food quality
● Texture, smell, temperature, pain – all influence taste (And experience too ...) 3
 Mouth and nasal cavities are connected

● Food can trigger olfactory

receptors – retronasal route
● Taste cells clustered in taste
buds
● Tongue, palate, pharynx,
epiglottis

http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/Ling102web/mod3_speaking/3mod3.2_vocalorgans.htm4
Sensing chemicals ...

● Not too much of an

issue related to
sensing chemicals –
been there, done that!!
● Three main types of
papillae distributed in
different parts of
tongue
● Taste buds with taste
cells present in
papillae

5
Taste buds contain taste cells with gustatory receptors

● Many taste cells in a

taste bud
● Extend microvilli
outside through taste
pore
● Taste cells are non-
neuronal epithelial cells
● Yet, excitable, can fire
action potentials
● Gustatory afferent nerve
forms synapses with
taste cells
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 Basic types of taste stimuli

● Sweet
● Bitter
● Salty
● Sour
● Umami
– relatively new
– Japanese chemist – Kikunae Ikeda identified glutamic acid as the
cause for the unique taste of kombu seaweed
– Two Japanese words – umai (delicious) and mi (taste)
– “meaty” taste or taste of monosodium glutamate (Ajinomoto) –
may be to sense proteins
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Text book view of how tastes are distributed on the
tongue
● 1 – bitter, 2 – sour, 3 – salt, 4 -
sweet
● Not true
● Original paper did not
● There can be differences in the
threshold
● Taste more evenly distributed
throughout the tongue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map 8
 Taste receptors

● Each taste receptor cell

(TRC) can express
combinations of receptors
● T1R1/T1R3 – amino
acids
● T1R2/T1R3 – sweet
● T2Rs – bitter
● Ion channels – sour and
salt
● TRCs release ATP (could
also release other
transmitters)
● Gap junctions between
TRCs
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http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ranier_Gutierrez/publication/6741677_The_neural_mechanisms_of_gustation_a_distributed_processing_code/links/0c96051d1
9486a500d000000.pdf
Labelled line vs. distributed code

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http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/8/S3/S5/figure/F1
Gustatory pathway

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Labelled line vs. distributed code

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http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/8/S3/S5/figure/F1