Accession Number:

ADA090198

Title:

Neural Coding Mechanisms in Gustation.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 1 Jan 77-31 Jul 80,

Corporate Author:

DUKE UNIV DURHAM NC DEPT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Personal Author(s):

• Erickson,Robert P.

Report Date:

1980-09-15

Pagination or Media Count:

7.0

Abstract:

Various aspects of the neural bases of taste were studied in rats. The main data were of the activity of single neurons in the peripheral nerve chorda tympani and medulla nucleus of the solitary tract, although some studies were made of central taste projections with the 2-DG method, and data were obtained of the electrical-responses in the cerebellum to simulation of oral structures. The data were treated mathematically to determine various aspects of their organization previous to this, such treatments were largely lacking, leading to conclusions contested in the present research. The present findings were that the previous conclusions that taste is organized in terms of four primary tastes is an artifact of the methods used in characterizing the data instead, the underlying organization is more continuous, as in the frequency dimension in audition, or wavelength in vision. This conclusion holds for both the stimulus and neural domains. Author

Descriptors:

• *NERVE TRANSMISSION
• *TASTE
• STIMULATION(PHYSIOLOGY)
• BRAIN
• RATS
• CODING
• CLUSTERING
• MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS
• HYPOTHESES
• PERCEPTION
• PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
• SMELL

Subject Categories:

• Anatomy and Physiology

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE