Neuroscience Notes

10/22/15

Chemical Senses
o Taste and smell
o Flavor = combination of taste and smell
o Taste gustation
o Smell olfaction
Gustation: Taste
o Bitter, sour, sweet, salty, umami
o Animals like:
Sweetness: food detectors
Saltiness: detect NaCl
Umami: detects glutamate (protein)
o Animals tend to avoid:
Sour: acidity (spoiled food)
Bitter: alkaloids (poisonous plants)
Taste Buds and Gustatory Cells
o Tongue, palate, pharynx, larynx contain about 10,000 taste buds
Papillae on tongue
o Fungiform Papillae
Anterior 2/3rds of the tongue
Few taste buds (up to 8)
Pressure, touch, temp receptors
o Foliate Papillae
Up to 8 folds
Back edge of the tongue
1300 taste buds
Taste Buds
o Receptive organ
o Most arranged around papillae
o Contain 20-50 receptor cells
o Cilia protrude through bud opening saliva
o Tight junctions between adjacent taste cells prevent substances
in saliva from diffusing into taste bud
Transduction
o Chemical binds to receptor, alters membrane permeability
receptor potential alters NT release
o Different channel mechanisms depending on stimulus
Can block e.g. sodium channel and decrease perception of
saltiness
Signal Transduction
o Alteration of transmitter (ATP) release via various mechanisms

o All via G-protein Rs except

Salt = Na+ channel
Sour = K+ channel
Gustatory Information to Brain
o Receptors synapse onto bipolar neurons whose axons VIIth IXth
and Xth CNs
o Nucleus of the Solitary Tract
Also receives info from visceral organs
o VPM thalamus
Also receives somatosensory info from trigeminal nerve
o Primary Gustatory Cortex (Insula)
o Secondary Gustatory Cortex (Orbitofrontal Cortex)
o *Taste info projects ipsilaterally
Gustatory System Also Projects To:
o Hypothalamus and adjacent basal forebrain
Reinforcing effects of sweet, umami, salty?
o Amygdala
Link with emotion?
Olfaction
o ID good and bad food, mates
o Stimuli: odorants
Volatile substances with molecular weight in the range of ~
15 to 300
Lipid soluble, typically organic
o 6 million olfactory receptors
Olfactory Apparatus
o Olfactory Epithelium
Top of nasal cavity
Contains cilia of the olfactory receptors
o Olfactory Receptors
Bipolar neurons
Send processes toward surface of mucosa, which divides
10-20 cilia that penetrate layer of mucus
o Odorants dissolve in mucus to stimulate receptors on cilia
o About 25 bundles of axons enter skull via small holes in
cribriform plate
o Project to olfactory bulb
Olfactory Bulb
o Each receptor sends single axon to bulb
o Axons synapse on mitral cells in olfactory glomeruli
o Olfactory Glomeruli bundle of dendrites of mitral cells and
terminal buttons of axons of olfactory receptors
10k glomeruli

Each receives 2k axons

o Mitral cell axons travel to rest of brain via olfactory tracts
How do we perceive so many odors?
o Humans can ID 10k different odorants, but only 339 identified
human olfactory receptors
o Odorants can bind more than one receptor (though not
necessarily equally well)
o Coding involves different patterns of responses in glomeruli
Olfactory Projections
o Limbic Regions: Primary olfactory cortex (piriform and entorhinal
cortex)
Olfactopic map
o Piriform hypothalamus
o Piriform dorsomedial thalamus orbitofrontal cortex
o Amygdala
Then to hypothalamus (food, reproduction)
Flavor Perception
o Taste and smell info first combines in OFC
o OFC also receives input form the primary somatosensory cortex
and the inferotemporal cortex in the visual what pathway
Bimodal neurons in this area responds to taste and smell,
taste and vision
Firing of these neurons affected by the level of hunger of
the animal for a specific food