Taste Processing: Insights from Animal Models

Abstract

<jats:p>Taste processing is an adaptive mechanism involving complex physiological, motivational and cognitive processes. Animal models have provided relevant data about the neuroanatomical and neurobiological components of taste processing. From these models, two important domains of taste responses are described in this review. The first part focuses on the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological bases of olfactory and taste processing. The second part describes the biological and behavioral characteristics of taste learning, with an emphasis on conditioned taste aversion as a key process for the survival and health of many species, including humans.</jats:p>

Flexible Tongue Electrode Array System for In Vivo Mapping of Electrical Signals of Taste Sensation

“…However, divergences and undiscovered areas still existed in complex taste perception mechanisms, multiple sensations (e.g., olfactory, visual, and somatosensory) induced tastes, correlations between tastes and subjective feelings (e.g., satiety, hunger, and individual preference), and so forth in the absence of a unified and identified view. 5,20 Although Virginia Collins showed the different results with a taste map, the early concept of the taste map is still used in textbooks worldwide due to its intuitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to employ novel bioelectronic strategies to reveal how sensation information is transmitted from the tongue to the cerebral cortex.…”

“…Tongue, the main taste organ of most mammals, can transmit information on different common tastes to the brain: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami. − Taste signals are mainly generated at the taste buds on the tongue and transmitted to the gustatory cortex via afferent nerves. − Conventionally, it is assumed that different taste receptors might be distributed at different zones of the tongue that could only respond to certain tastes. Based on this theory, the taste map has been widely spread since it was first defined by Edwin Garrigues Boring in 1942.…”

“…Since then, researchers have identified five canonical coding mechanisms corresponding to the five tastes of mammals and humans: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami by dissecting the tongue and coding taste sensations, thus improving the understanding of the taste mechanism. , It was generally believed that the recognition of sweet, bitter, and umami tastes , was performed via individual subsets of taste receptor cells (TRCs), − while sour and salty tastes were perceived by Na + and H + entrance through specific membrane channels on TRCs, indicating that the sensing intensity of all five tastes equivalently relies on the distribution of taste buds , rather than the taste map (Figure a). However, divergences and undiscovered areas still existed in complex taste perception mechanisms, multiple sensations (e.g., olfactory, visual, and somatosensory) induced tastes, correlations between tastes and subjective feelings (e.g., satiety, hunger, and individual preference), and so forth in the absence of a unified and identified view. , Although Virginia Collins showed the different results with a taste map, the early concept of the taste map is still used in textbooks worldwide due to its intuitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to employ novel bioelectronic strategies to reveal how sensation information is transmitted from the tongue to the cerebral cortex.…”