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PubMed1996

Assessment of the palatability of antistaphylococcal antibiotics in pediatric volunteers.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the palatability of four commonly prescribed antistaphylococcal antibiotics, cloxacillin, cephalexin, erythromycin, and fusidic acid, in volunteer children. DESIGN: A single-blind taste test of four flavored antibiotic suspensions commonly used in the treatment of skin infections in pediatric patients. SETTING: University teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty healthy volunteer children with a mean age of 9.2 +/- 2.0 SD years (range 6-12). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The taste of each antibiotic was rated by the children on a 10-cm visual analog scale incorporating a facial hedonic scale. The children were also asked which antibiotic they thought tasted the best and which tasted the worst. RESULTS: Taste scores were as follows: cloxacillin 1.4 +/- 1.8 cm, cephalexin 6.5 +/- 2.7 cm, erythromycin 6.8 +/- 3.0 cm, and fusidic acid 6.3 +/- 2.4 cm. The taste rating of cloxacillin was significantly lower compared with the other three antibiotics (p = 0.001). Cloxacillin was chosen as having the worst taste by a significant proportion of the children (18 of 20). None of the antibiotics was clearly best tasting. CONCLUSIONS: Given similar effectiveness, taste considerations may be important in the decision as to which antibiotic to prescribe. The perception that cloxacillin is poor tasting to children is supported by this study, which suggests that when compliance with oral medication is critical for successful treatment, prescription of cloxacillin suspension should be avoided.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1992

Taste neurons in the cortex of the alert cynomolgus monkey.

The activity of single neurons in the gustatory cortex of alert cynomolgus monkeys was analyzed. Taste-evoked activity in response to the four prototypical taste stimuli was recorded from a cortical gustatory area comprising the frontal operculum and adjoining anterior insula. Spontaneous activity for 364 gustatory neurons was 3.9 +/- 4.9 (mean +/- SD) spikes/s. Mean net (gross minus spontaneous) discharge rates for all gustatory neurons were: 1.0 M glucose = 4.9 +/- 11.6, 0.3 M NaCl = 3.2 +/- 7.1, M quinine HCl = 2.6 +/- 5.8, and 0.01 M HCl = 1.7 +/- 4.6. The results from intensity-response functions imply that the perception of each basic taste quality in the nonhuman primate is based on the activity of the appropriate neural subgroup rather than on the mean activity of all taste cells. Therefore a more meaningful index of the effectiveness of a stimulus may be the discharge rate it evokes from the subset of gustatory neurons for which it is the best stimulus. Glucose was the best stimulus for 142 cells (including ties), from which it elicited a mean net response of 10.3 spikes/s; NaCl was best for 107 neurons which gave a mean 8.7 spikes/s; quinine HCl evoked 6.2 spikes/s from the 74 cells that responded best to it; HCl elicited 5.9 spikes/s from the 49 neurons for which it served as best stimulus. The response characteristics of cortical taste cells indicate heterogeneous features, and significantly different patterns from those reported in other nonchemical sensory systems.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Effects of obesity and set point on taste responsiveness and ingestion in humans.

Two experiments investigated the relationships among degree of obesity, nearness to set point for adipose tissue mass, and responsiveness to taste. In Experiment 1, subjects rated milkshakes varying in sweetness intensity. Overweight and normal weight subjects did not have significantly different detection thresholds or preference ratings. However, overweight subjects worked longer than normals to obtain their most preferred substance. Experiment 2 varied the ease of tasting the milkshake. Preference and food intake of moderately overweight subjects were significantly more influenced by tastes that they found positive and negative than was the preference of normal weight or obese subjects. The ease of ingesting the taste substance also significantly influenced preference and food intake of the moderately obese only. Nearness to set point, operationally defined as weight stability for 2 years, had no significant effects.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed2006

A TAS1R receptor-based explanation of sweet 'water-taste'.

'Water-tastes' are gustatory after-impressions elicited by water following the removal of a chemical solution from the mouth, akin to colour after-images appearing on 'white' paper after fixation on coloured images. Unlike colour after-images, gustatory after-effects are poorly understood. One theory posits that 'water-tastes' are adaptation phenomena, in which adaptation to one taste solution causes the water presented subsequently to act as a taste stimulus. An alternative hypothesis is that removal of the stimulus upon rinsing generates a receptor-based, positive, off-response in taste-receptor cells, ultimately inducing a gustatory perception. Here we show that a sweet 'water-taste' is elicited when sweet-taste inhibitors are rinsed away. Responses of cultured cells expressing the human sweetener receptor directly parallel the psychophysical responses-water rinses remove the inhibitor from the heteromeric sweetener receptor TAS1R2-TAS1R3, which activates cells and results in the perception of strong sweetness from pure water. This 'rebound' activity occurs when equilibrium forces on the two-state allosteric sweet receptors result in their coordinated shift to the activated state upon being released from inhibition by rinsing.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1998

Low body temperature affects associative processes in long-trace conditioned flavor aversion.

A series of experiments examined the effect of low body temperature on the associative process in long-trace conditioned flavor aversion. Experiment 1 demonstrated that maintaining a low body temperature between conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) administration facilitates the associative process and allows a flavor aversion to be conditioned in young rats over an interval that would normally not support conditioning. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that this was due neither to lingering systemic saccharin serving as a CS nor to a cold induced enhancement of US intensity. Experiment 4 demonstrated that inducing hypothermia at various times during a 3-h CS-US interval results in an apparent delay of reinforcement gradient. We propose that a cold induced decrease in metabolic rate slows the internal clock that governs the perception of time and that the CS-US association depends upon perceived contiguity rather than upon an external clock-referenced contiguity.

Aging↗
PubMed2004

Contextual taste cues modulate olfactory learning in C. elegans by an occasion-setting mechanism.

Manipulations of context can affect learning and memory performance across species in many associative learning paradigms. Using taste cues to create distinct contexts for olfactory adaptation assays in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we now show that performance in this associative learning paradigm is sensitive to context manipulations, and we investigate the mechanism(s) used for the integration of context cues in learning. One possibility is that the taste and olfactory stimuli are perceived as a combined, blended cue that the animals then associate with the unconditioned stimulus (US) in the same manner as with any other unitary conditioned stimuli (CS). Alternatively, an occasion-setting model suggests that the taste cues only define the appropriate context for olfactory memory retrieval without directly entering into the primary association. Analysis of genetic mutants demonstrated that the olfactory and context cues are sensed by distinct primary sensory neurons and that the animals' ability to use taste cues to modulate olfactory learning is independent from their ability to utilize these same taste cues for adaptation. We interpret these results as evidence for the occasion-setting mechanism in which context cues modulate primary Pavlovian association by functioning in a hierarchical manner to define the appropriate setting for memory recall.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2004

Epidemiology of menthol cigarette use.

Approximately one-fourth of all cigarettes sold in the United States are mentholated. An understanding of the consequences, patterns, and correlates of menthol cigarette use can guide the development and implementation of strategies to reduce smoking prevalence and smoking-attributable morbidity and mortality. This paper summarizes the literature on the health effects of mentholated cigarettes and describes various patterns of use as indicated by consumption and survey data from the United States and other nations. The epidemiological literature on menthol cigarettes and cancer risk is inconclusive regarding whether these cigarettes confer a risk for cancer above that of nonmentholated varieties. Available data indicate that mentholated cigarettes are at least as dangerous as their nonmentholated counterparts. In addition, because mentholation improves the taste of cigarettes for a substantial segment of the smoking population and appears to mask disease symptoms, this additive may facilitate initiation or inhibit quitting. Menthol market share is high in the Philippines (60%), Cameroon (35%-40%), Hong Kong (26%), the United States (26%), and Singapore (22%). Newport has become the leading menthol brand in the United States. Surveys from four nations indicate that menthol use among adult smokers is more common among females than males. Among U.S. smokers, 68.9% of Blacks, 29.2% of Hispanics, and 22.4% of Whites reported smoking a mentholated variety. Research is needed to better explain factors that may influence menthol preference, such as marketing, risk perceptions, brand formulation, and taste preferences. Such research would guide the development of potentially more effective programs and policies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Sweet tooth reconsidered: taste responsiveness in human obesity.

Taste responses of normal-weight, obese, and formerly obese individuals for sucrose and fat containing stimuli were examined using a mathematical modelling technique known as the Response Surface Method. The subjects accurately rated intensities of sweetness, fatness, and creaminess of 20 different mixtures of milk, cream, and sugar, and no mixture phenomena or inter-group differences were observed. In contrast, hedonic taste responses varied across subject groups, and were affected differentially by the sucrose and lipid content of the stimuli. Normal-weight subjects optimally preferred stimuli containing 20% lipid and less than 10% sucrose. Obese subjects preferred high-fat stimuli (greater than 34% lipid) that contained less than 5% sucrose, while formerly obese subjects showed enhanced responsiveness to both sugar and fat. Hedonic responsiveness as measured by the optimal sugar/fat ratio was negatively correlated with the degree of overweight (body mass index: weight/height). We hypothesize that sensory preferences for dietary sugars and fats aren determined by body-weight status and may affect the patterns of food consumption.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Reliability of magnitude matching.

In each of four experimental sessions, each of 16 subjects gave magnitude estimates of the taste intensities of NaCl and the loudness of noise on a single, common scale--the method of magnitude matching. In all sessions, the intensity levels of the noises were identical; but in two sessions, the concentrations of NaCl were low, and in two they were high. Cross-modality matches (magnitude matches) between NaCl and noise were derived from the judgments, revealing two main findings: First, given constant NaCl concentrations, individual subjects showed reliably different magnitude matches. Second, changing the NaCl concentrations (context) strongly affected the magnitude matches. These findings suggest that magnitude matching may be useful in assessing interindividual as well as intergroup differences, though caution must be taken to minimize effects of context: Context effects are pervasive; they suggest the presence of a complex relativistic process operating when people judge the intensities of qualitatively different stimuli.

Attention↗
PubMed2005

Chemesthesis and taste: evidence of independent processing of sensation intensity.

The ability to perceive taste from temperature alone ("thermal taste") was recently shown to predict higher perceptual responsiveness to gustatory and olfactory stimuli. This relationship was hypothesized to be due in part to individual differences in CNS processes involved in flavor perception. Here we report three experiments that tested whether subjects who differ in responsiveness to thermal taste and/or chemical taste also differ in responsiveness to oral chemesthesis. In experiment 1, subjects identified as 'thermal tasters' (TTs) or 'thermal non-tasters' (TnTs) used the general Labeled Magnitude Scale to rate the intensity of sensations produced on the tongue tip by capsaicin, menthol, sucrose, NaCl, citric acid, and QSO4. TTs rated all four taste stimuli higher than did TnTs, whereas sensations of burning/stinging/pricking and temperature from capsaicin and menthol did not differ significantly between groups. In experiment 2, testing with capsaicin on both the front and back of the tongue confirmed there was no difference in ratings of burning/stinging/pricking when subjects were grouped according to the ability to perceive thermal taste. In experiment 3, subjects were classified as high- or low-tasters according to their ratings of sucrose sweetness rather than thermal taste. No group difference was found for perception of capsaicin even when presented in mixture with sucrose or NaCl. The results are discussed in the context of previous evidence of an association between chemesthesis and sensitivity to the bitter tastant PROP, and in terms of the various peripheral and central neural processes that may underlie intensity perception in taste and chemesthesis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Subjective and objective indices of the satiating effect of foods. Can people predict how filling a food will be?

OBJECTIVE: These two studies compared the subjective assessment of how filling a snack type would be, with actual consumption of that type of snack at a snack meal. DESIGN: Four snack types: savory high-fat, savory high-carbohydrate, sweet high-carbohydrate, each comprising of five food items, were used. Study 1 consisted of tasting followed by perceptual evaluations. Study 2 was a consumption test with a within-subjects design, each subject received each of the snack types in a counterbalanced order. A no snack condition was also included. SETTING: The studies were carried out in the Human Appetite and Nutrition Research Unit. SUBJECTS: Twenty-four lean male and female individuals took part in Study 1. Sixteen lean young male University students took part in Study 2. INTERVENTIONS: In Study 1 subjects tasted 10 of the 20 food items comprising the snack types, and rated the saltiness, sweetness, fillingness and pleasantness of these on 100 mm visual analogue rating scales (VAS). In Study 2, a fixed breakfast and lunch were consumed, subjects were then offered an ad libitum selection of one of the 4 snack types. VAS to record subjective feelings of hunger and fullness were completed periodically. RESULTS: The results of Study 1 showed the sweet high-fat snack type was rated more filling, but similar in pleasantness, than the other snack types. Study 2 showed the sweet high-fat snack type resulted in a higher energy intake than the other snack types. CONCLUSIONS: The subjective assessment of snacks suggested sweet high-fat snacks could be filling, however when consumed these snacks resulted in a higher energy intake than the sweet high-carbohydrate and both types of savory snacks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Effects of weight and energy content of preloads on subsequent appetite and food intake.

This study was done to determine the relative effects of energy content and weight of ingested food on subsequent satiety and food intake. The weight/volume and the energy content of nine preloads were manipulated, in a 3 x 3 factorial design, to give three weight levels, 250, 500 and 750 g, and three energy levels 0, 1.26 and 2.51 MJ (0, 300 and 600 kcal). The weights were varied by the addition of water, while the energy levels were varied by using yogurt and cream. Each of the 1.26 and 2.51 MJ preloads contained 27 g of protein and 31 g of carbohydrates. The 1.26 MJ preloads contained 8 g of fat and the 2.51 MJ preloads had 41 g of fat. Each of the nine preloads was presented as a lunch to 21 female and 16 male subjects. Two hours after the preloads, subjects consumed sweet and savory snacks and various drinks ad libitum from a buffet. The weight of the preload had a small but statistically significant effect on feelings of hunger and satiety between preload and buffet, and on energy intake during the buffet (5.34, 5.05 and 5.04 MJ after 250, 500 and 750 g preloads). There was a large difference between 0 and 1.26 MJ, but little difference in effect between 1.26 and 2.51 MJ preloads. Mean energy intakes in the buffet after the 0, 1.26 and 2.51 MJ preloads were 6.17, 4.83 and 4.42 MJ. These results suggest that the weight or amount of food affects subsequent appetite and food intake, but the effect of energy is stronger.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The orbitofrontal cortex: neuronal activity in the behaving monkey.

Single unit recording of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex of the alert rhesus monkey was used to investigate responses to sensory stimulation. 32.4% of the neurons had visual responses that had typical latencies of 100-200 ms, and 9.4% responded to gustatory inputs. Most neurons were selective, in that they responded consistently to some stimuli such as foods or aversive objects, but not to others. In a number of cases the neurons responded selectively to particular foods or aversive stimuli. However, this high selectivity could not be explained by simple sensory features of the stimulus, since the responses of some neurons could be readily reversed if the meaning of the stimulus (i.e. whether it was food or aversive) was changed, even though its physical appearance remained identical. Further, some bimodal neurons received convergent visual and gustatory inputs, with matching selectivity for the same stimulus in both modalities, again suggesting that an explanation in terms of simple sensory features is inadequate. Neurons were also studied during the performance of tasks known to be disrupted by orbitofrontal lesions, including a go/no go visual discrimination task and its reversal. 8.6% of neurons had differential responses to the two discriminative stimuli in the task, one of which indicated that reward was available and the other saline. Reversing the meaning of the two stimuli showed that whereas some differential units were closely linked to the sensory features of the stimuli, and some to their behavioural significance, others were conditional, in that they would only respond if a particular stimulus was present, and if it was the one being currently rewarded. Other neurons had activity related to the outcome of the animal's response, with some indicating that reinforcement had been received and others, that an error had been made and that a reversal was required. Thus, neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex possess highly coded information about which stimuli are present, as well as information about the consequences of the animal's own responses. It is suggested that together they may constitute a neuronal mechanism for determining whether particular visual stimuli continue to be associated with reinforcement, as well as providing for the modification of the animal's behavioural responses to such stimuli when those responses are no longer appropriate.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Sensory-specific satiety: food-specific reduction in responsiveness of ventral forebrain neurons after feeding in the monkey.

It has been shown previously that some neurons in the lateral hypothalamus and substantia innominata respond to the sight of food, others to the taste of food, and others to the sight or taste of food, in the hungry monkey. It is shown here that feeding to satiety decreases the responses of hypothalamic neurons to the sight and/or taste of a food on which the monkey has been satiated, but leaves the responses of the same neurons to other foods on which the monkey has not been satiated relatively unchanged. This suggests that the responses of these neurons in the ventral forebrain are related to sensory-specific satiety, an important phenomenon which regulates food intake. In sensory-specific satiety, the pleasantness of the sight or taste of a food becomes less after it is eaten to satiety, whereas the pleasantness of the sight or taste of other foods which have not been eaten is much less changed; correspondingly, food intake is greater if foods which have not already been eaten to satiety are offered.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Cephalic phase metabolic responses in normal weight adults.

The presence and physiologic importance of cephalic phase insulin release in humans remains controversial. The aim of these studies was to determine whether cephalic phase insulin release could be demonstrated in normal weight subjects and whether it would be associated with changes in blood glucose, free fatty acid, and pancreatic polypeptide levels. The studies were followed by a hyperglycemic clamp to determine whether cephalic responses would alter overall glucose disposal or glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. In all, 17 subjects were studied on two occasions with and without (control study) presentation of food stimuli. Tease-feeding alone (n = 6), or the administration of a sweet taste alone (aspartame, n = 5) failed to stimulate cephalic responses. However, the presentation of the combined stimuli (tease meals plus sweet taste, n = 7) resulted in a significant fall (P less than .005) in blood glucose levels and a variable rise in serum insulin (% insulin rise 38 +/- 15%, P less than .05) and C-peptide levels (7 +/- 6%, NS) within five minutes of the food presentation when compared with control studies, with no change seen in free fatty acid or pancreatic polypeptide levels. The blood glucose fall correlated strongly (r = .90, P less than .01) with a score of the subjective response to the food and taste.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Chemical and visual control of feeding and escape behaviors in the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus.

Channel catfish, maintained individually in aquaria with dark substrate, responded to visual stimuli from above with escape behavior and to amino acid stimuli with feeding behavior. Feeding behavior was composed of a) appetitive patterns, such as barbel movements, orienting posture, and search swimming and b) consummatory patterns that included a halt in swimming, turning, snapping-biting, ingestion, mastication, and swallowing. The conditioning procedure, which consisted of 90 s presentations of a single amino acid followed by a food reward, influenced the duration and speed of the search swim. Swimming behavior was quantified by counting the number of turns greater than 90 degrees. Catfish turned 40-75 times to the conditioned stimuli, L-proline and L-arginine, but only 20-40 times to the nonconditioned stimuli. Olfaction rather than taste was involved in the conditioned response to L-proline because the highest possible contact concentration (3 x 10(-6) M) of L-proline within the stimulus eddies was at least 30 times lower than the estimated L-proline electrophysiological taste threshold (> 10(-4) M).

Animals↗