TASTE – CHEMOSENSATION Flashcards
What is taste/gustation?
strictly what happens through your taste buds
What is flavour?
combination of taste, smell, somatosensation/mouth feel, and more that leads to the overall Gestalt of a particular food
What do artificial sweeteners do?
artificial sweeteners can hijack naturally occurring sweet receptors
What is the taste of protein?
the taste of amino acids
Recording from a nerve….
is recording the activity of many neurons, therefore there are responses to all modalities
What is higher taste processing?
pathways from tongue to brain
What do taste cells synapse with?
afferent neurons in tongue
What is hedonics?
whether something is pleasurable or not (positive/negative)
What are tasted buds?
multicellular units
What taste receptor did cats lose? Why?
no T1R2 – cannot taste sweet
they are obligate carnivores, therefore lost the receptor
What taste receptor did pandas lose? Why?
no T1R1 – cannot taste umami
- they eat bamboo (sweet)
- they don’t eat wheat, therefore lost the umami receptor
What taste receptor did hummingbirds lose? Why?
no T1R2
- converted their umami receptor to sweet (through evolution)
- umami receptors detect very low levels of amino acids
What does NBQX do?
blocks AMPA receptors to effectively “silence” the region of injection
What does the taste system contribute to flavour?
can distinguish if something is sweet and/or sour, but can’t determine what the food is specifically
What does the smell system contribute to flavour?
can distinguish what the food is
- evokes memories
- critical to our perception of food – some things are much more identifiable with smell than without
