BACKGROUND Multiple excitatory neurotransmitters have been identified in the mammalian taste transduction, with few studies focused on inhibitory neurotransmitters. Since the synthetic enzyme glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is expressed in a subset of mouse taste cells, we hypothesized that other components of the GABA signaling pathway are likely expressed in t...

Research on the neurobiological substrates of taste-related learning and memory is a broad and rapidly evolving multidisciplinary field. Historically, research on taste aversion learning has contributed critically both to the behavioral and the neurobiological assessment of learning systems. Since the discovery by Garcia et al. (1955) of conditioned taste aversion and its peculiar features, suc...

Taste is one of the fundamental senses, and it is essential for our ability to ingest nutritious substances and to detect and avoid potentially toxic ones. Taste buds, which are clusters of neuroepithelial receptor cells, are housed in highly organized structures called taste papillae in the oral cavity. Whereas the overall structure of the taste periphery is conserved in almost all vertebrates...

Taste receptor cells are the taste sensation elements for sour, salty, sweet, bitter and umami sensations. It was demonstrated that there are cell-to-cell communications between type II (sour) and type III (sweet, bitter and umami) taste cells. Serotonin (5-HT) is released from type III cells, which is the only type of taste cells that has synaptic process with sensory afferent fibers. Then, ta...

Salty taste perception affects salt intake, of which excess amounts is a major public health concern. Gene polymorphisms in salty taste receptors, zinc status and their interaction may affect salty taste perception. In this study, we examined the relationships among the α-epithelial sodium channel (αENaC) A663T genotype, zinc intake, and salty taste perception including salty taste acuity and p...

The Tas1r3 gene encodes the T1R3 receptor protein, which is involved in sweet taste transduction. To characterize ligand specificity of the T1R3 receptor and the genetic architecture of sweet taste responsiveness, we analyzed taste responses of 129.B6-Tas1r3 congenic mice to a variety of chemically diverse sweeteners and glucose polymers with three different measures: consumption in 48-h two-bo...

Taste remains one of the least-explored human senses. Cortical taste responses were investigated using neuroimaging in 40 subjects tasting a range of different taste stimuli compared to a neutral tasteless control. Activation was found in the anterior insula/frontal opercular taste cortex and caudal orbitofrontal cortex, both areas established as taste cortical areas by neuronal recordings in p...

Clinical taste testing in humans is far from being routinely performed in ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinics. Consequently, most reports on posttraumatic and postoperative taste disorders are case reports and mainly consist of qualitative (e.g. dysgeusia, metallic taste) taste changes after either head injury or ENT surgery. Since quantitative taste deficiencies (ageusia, hypogeusia) often go u...

Genetic approaches are rapidly yielding new information about our sense of taste. This information comes from both molecular studies of genes encoding taste receptors and other taste-signaling components, and from studies of inherited variation in taste abilities. Our understanding of bitter taste has advanced by combined information from discovery and study of the TAS2R family of taste recepto...