Taste

Description

Taste receptors monitor the quality of all the food ingested. They are intimately involved in both food acceptance and rejection. The sensation of taste is also important in the regulation of many specific chemicals necessary for maintenance of the body. For example, disturbance of the adrenal glands results in a change in the intake of salt which is necessary for regulation of the sodium balance. Curt Richter's early studies on specific hungers and preference thresholds initiated a large number of studies in this field. The relationship between taste and food intake is now well recognized by physiologists, psychologists and nutritionists. Our current concepts of the neural coding of taste quality and intensity are largely based upon the classical paper by PFAFFMANN in 1941. Many subsequent single nerve fiber studies have added to our understanding. In recent years Zotterman and Diamant have successfully recorded from the human taste nerves as they pass through the middle ear. This allowed them to study the relationships between the response of taste receptors and the resultant taste sensation. No similar feat has yet been accomplished with the visual and auditory systems. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Tongue Topography....Pages 1-30 Ultrastructure of Taste Receptors....Pages 31-50 Development of the Taste Bud....Pages 51-62 Degeneration and Regeneration of Taste Buds....Pages 63-74 Taste Psychophysics....Pages 75-101 The Recording of the Electrical Response from Human Taste Nerves....Pages 102-115 Neural Coding in Taste as Seen from Recordings from Peripheral Receptors and Nerves....Pages 116-147 Central Projections of the Gustatory System....Pages 148-164 Genetics of Taste....Pages 165-179 Electrical Taste....Pages 180-199 Taste Receptor Stimulation with Salts and Acids....Pages 200-220 Chemical Structure of Compounds and Their Sweet and Bitter Taste....Pages 221-277 Comparative Study of Taste....Pages 278-292 The Sense of Taste in Fishes....Pages 293-336 Role of Taste in Specific Hungers....Pages 337-362 Taste Modifiers....Pages 363-378 Back Matter....Pages 379-426