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PubMed1996

Amiloride suppresses the sourness of NaCl and LiCl.

The transduction of Na+ salts in many species is mediated by both apical and submucosal ion channels on the taste receptor-cell membrane. The apical ion channel is blockable by the diuretic amiloride, whereas the submucosal pathway is not. Previous human psychophysical studies have shown a decrease in NaCl taste intensity caused by amiloride that is smaller than the reduction of the electrophysiological response produced by amiloride in other species. Many salts, including NaCl, elicit not only a salty taste to humans, but also sweet, sour, or bitter side tastes. Amiloride has been shown to reduce the sourness, but not the saltiness, of NaCl and Na gluconate and to have no effect on the taste of KCl. The present experiment further evaluated the hypothesis that the sour taste of Na+ and Li+ salts is mediated by the amiloride-sensitive transduction mechanism, by examining the effect of amiloride on the taste of LiCl, which is considerably more sour than NaCl. Four concentrations of NaCl, LiCl, and KCl were presented to the anterior tongue following adaptation to water or after 10 microM amiloride treatment. Subjects estimated the intensity of the taste of each stimulus and divided this estimate among the appropriate taste qualities. There was a significant decrease in the total taste intensity of NaCl and LiCl after amiloride, but no effect on KCl; LiCl was more greatly suppressed than NaCl. These data show no effect on the saltiness of LiCl or NaCl, except for a small reduction in the saltiness of 0.1 M NaCl. On the contrary, there was a significant effect on the sourness of both NaCl and LiCl. Citric acid (3.2 mM) was also used as a stimulus, but amiloride treatment had no effect on its sourness. These data indicate that the amiloride-sensitive channel plays a key role in the perception of the sour taste of NaCl and LiCl (but not citric acid) and little role in the perception of saltiness. The salty taste of these salts may arise from other transduction pathways.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Taste-aroma interactions in a ternary system: a model of fruitiness perception in sucrose/acid solutions.

Cross-modal interactions between aroma, sweetness, and acidity were studied. A series of samples was presented to trained panelists who assessed strawberry flavor intensity using magnitude estimation with a reference modulus. The delivery of aroma stimuli from the different solutions was measured by monitoring exhaled breath using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry to determine whether there were any physicochemical effects on volatile release; no significant differences were noted. Three-dimensional predictive models were built to describe perceived strawberry flavor intensity as a function of concentrations of sucrose, acid, and volatiles. Analysis of the data identified two groups of panelists with different responses: For Group 1, increasing sucrose and/or acid levels also increased the perceived flavor intensity. For Group 2, changing sucrose concentrations had little effect, but increasing acid and/or volatile levels did. The results show different effects of organic and inorganic acids on perception, as well as clear interactions between the modalities of taste (sugar and acid) and aroma. The clustering of panelists' responses suggests that this phenomenon may depend on prior associations between the fruity flavor and the tastants.

Acids↗
PubMed2005

Heat activation of TRPM5 underlies thermal sensitivity of sweet taste.

TRPM5, a cation channel of the TRP superfamily, is highly expressed in taste buds of the tongue, where it has a key role in the perception of sweet, umami and bitter tastes. Activation of TRPM5 occurs downstream of the activation of G-protein-coupled taste receptors and is proposed to generate a depolarizing potential in the taste receptor cells. Factors that modulate TRPM5 activity are therefore expected to influence taste. Here we show that TRPM5 is a highly temperature-sensitive, heat-activated channel: inward TRPM5 currents increase steeply at temperatures between 15 and 35 degrees C. TRPM4, a close homologue of TRPM5, shows similar temperature sensitivity. Heat activation is due to a temperature-dependent shift of the activation curve, in analogy to other thermosensitive TRP channels. Moreover, we show that increasing temperature between 15 and 35 degrees C markedly enhances the gustatory nerve response to sweet compounds in wild-type but not in Trpm5 knockout mice. The strong temperature sensitivity of TRPM5 may underlie known effects of temperature on perceived taste in humans, including enhanced sweetness perception at high temperatures and 'thermal taste', the phenomenon whereby heating or cooling of the tongue evoke sensations of taste in the absence of tastants.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Reduced urination rate while drinking beer with an unpleasant taste and off-flavor.

A lowered subjective evaluation of the taste and flavor of beer due to staleness or to the addition of an unpleasant taste and flavor was found to be closely correlated with the urination rate. Beer in the same lot was compared immediately after shipment from the brewery and after leaving at room temperature for 1 month or 5 months. Each beer sample was given to volunteers at the rate of 3 ml/kg/15 min for 2 hours, and the urine volume was measured every 30 minutes. The urination rate was highest from the volunteers who drank fresh beer and lowest from those who drank 5-month-old beer. The subjective evaluation of both the taste and drinkability of 5-month-old beer was significantly lower than that of fresh beer. Beer samples with various unpleasant taste and flavor substances added lowered the urination rate. The results suggest that the perception of an unpleasant taste and off-flavor would lower the urination rate.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Synaesthesia: when coloured sounds taste sweet.

Synaesthesia is the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal linkage--for example, hearing a tone (the inducing stimulus) evokes an additional sensation of seeing a colour (concurrent perception). Of the different types of synaesthesia, most have colour as the concurrent perception, with concurrent perceptions of smell or taste being rare. Here we describe the case of a musician who experiences different tastes in response to hearing different musical tone intervals, and who makes use of her synaesthetic sensations in the complex task of tone-interval identification. To our knowledge, this combination of inducing stimulus and concurrent perception has not been described before.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2004

Experience-dependent neural integration of taste and smell in the human brain.

Flavor perception arises from the central integration of peripherally distinct sensory inputs (taste, smell, texture, temperature, sight, and even sound of foods). The results from psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans are converging with electrophysiological findings in animals and a picture of the neural correlates of flavor processing is beginning to emerge. Here we used event-related fMRI to evaluate brain response during perception of flavors (i.e., taste/odor liquid mixtures not differing in temperature or texture) compared with the sum of the independent presentation of their constituents (taste and/or odor). All stimuli were presented in liquid form so that olfactory stimulation was by the retronasal route. Mode of olfactory delivery is important because neural suppression has been observed in chemosensory regions during congruent taste-odor pairs when the odors are delivered by the orthonasal route and require subjects to sniff. There were 2 flavors. One contained a familiar/congruent taste-odor pair (vanilla/sweet) and the other an unfamiliar/incongruent taste-odor pair (vanilla/salty). Three unimodal stimuli, including 2 tastes (sweet and salty) and one odor (vanilla), as well as a tasteless/odorless liquid (baseline) were presented. Superadditive responses during the perception of the congruent flavor compared with the sum of its constituents were observed in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsal insula, anterior ventral insula extending into the caudal orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), frontal operculum, ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. These regions were not present in a similar analysis of the incongruent flavor compared with the sum of its constituents. All of these regions except the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were also isolated in a direct contrast of congruent - incongruent. Additionally, the anterior cingulate, posterior parietal cortex, frontal operculum, and ventral insula/caudal OFC were also more active in vanilla + salty minus incongruent, suggesting that delivery of an unfamiliar taste-odor combination may lead to suppressed neural responses. Taken together with previous findings in the literature, these results suggest that the insula, OFC, and ACC are key components of the network underlying flavor perception and that taste-smell integration within these and other regions is dependent on 1) mode of olfactory delivery and 2) previous experience with taste/smell combinations.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Synaesthesia: an overview of contemporary findings and controversies.

Research on synaesthesia is undergoing something of a renaissance, having initially been a hot topic in psychology and philosophy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One hundred years ago investigators failed to define an objective framework within which to characterise the phenomenon, and so interest in the topic waned. With the cognitive revolution and the rapid rise of new experimental techniques in human neuroscience, interest in synaesthesia as a legitimate topic for scientific investigation has been rekindled. Since the 1980s there has been rapid growth in scientific and media interest in synaesthesia, and there is now a sense that real progress is being made. This Special Issue of Cortex brings together the largest collection of empirical papers on the topic of synaesthesia to date. The 21 papers collected herein showcase the many significant advances that have been made in understanding the behavioural and neural bases of synaesthesia. The contributions reflect the work of more than 60 investigators from nine different countries. We are confident that the papers presented in this Special Issue will set the agenda for synaesthesia research for many years to come.

Association↗
PubMed1997

A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust.

Recognition of facial expressions is critical to our appreciation of the social and physical environment, with separate emotions having distinct facial expressions. Perception of fearful facial expressions has been extensively studied, appearing to depend upon the amygdala. Disgust-literally 'bad taste'-is another important emotion, with a distinct evolutionary history, and is conveyed by a characteristic facial expression. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural substrate for perceiving disgust expressions. Normal volunteers were presented with faces showing mild or strong disgust or fear. Cerebral activation in response to these stimuli was contrasted with that for neutral faces. Results for fear generally confirmed previous positron emission tomography findings of amygdala involvement. Both strong and mild expressions of disgust activated anterior insular cortex but not the amygdala; strong disgust also activated structures linked to a limbic cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit. The anterior insula is known to be involved in responses to offensive tastes. The neural response to facial expressions of disgust in others is thus closely related to appraisal of distasteful stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Taste responsiveness in anorexia nervosa.

Preferences for sugar/fat mixtures were examined in 12 anorectic females and in 14 normal-weight volunteer controls. The subjects, recruited at an eating-disorders clinic in Paris, were tested after an overnight fast and 2 hours after lunch. Anorectic patients disliked the taste of foods rich in fat more than did controls. Perceptions and preferences for sweet taste did not differ between anorectic females and controls. After lunch, taste preference ratings were equally reduced in both groups, suggesting that satiety aversion to sucrose is present even in anorexia nervosa.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The receptors for mammalian sweet and umami taste.

Sweet and umami (the taste of monosodium glutamate) are the main attractive taste modalities in humans. T1Rs are candidate mammalian taste receptors that combine to assemble two heteromeric G-protein-coupled receptor complexes: T1R1+3, an umami sensor, and T1R2+3, a sweet receptor. We now report the behavioral and physiological characterization of T1R1, T1R2, and T1R3 knockout mice. We demonstrate that sweet and umami taste are strictly dependent on T1R-receptors, and show that selective elimination of T1R-subunits differentially abolishes detection and perception of these two taste modalities. To examine the basis of sweet tastant recognition and coding, we engineered animals expressing either the human T1R2-receptor (hT1R2), or a modified opioid-receptor (RASSL) in sweet cells. Expression of hT1R2 in mice generates animals with humanized sweet taste preferences, while expression of RASSL drives strong attraction to a synthetic opiate, demonstrating that sweet cells trigger dedicated behavioral outputs, but their tastant selectivity is determined by the nature of the receptors.

Animals↗