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Characteristic response to taste stimuli of the intensities of higher harmonics in an electrochemical oscillatory system.

In general, the electrochemical characteristics of solid/liquid or liquid/liquid interfaces are highly nonlinear, i.e., the capacitance changes markedly according to the applied voltage. In this paper, we propose a novel method for evaluating these nonlinear characteristics quantitatively. That is, a sinusoidal voltage source is applied to a test solution and the waveform of the output current is analyzed by Fourier transformation. It is shown theoretically that higher harmonic components in the Fourier transformation afford us useful information on nonlinear behavior. It is stressed that our technique is entirely different from the classical impedance method, i.e., nonlinear components of the impedance can be evaluated in our method, having been ignored previously in the classical impedance measurement. As an application of this method, we have studied the effect of taste compounds on the intensities of the higher harmonics, using an electrochemical cell containing an aqueous solution of sodium oleate. It has been found that the intensities of the higher harmonics exhibit characteristic changes upon the addition of taste compounds, the change being dependent upon the taste category. The characteristic response to taste compounds in the electrochemical nonlinearity is discussed in relation to the experimental trend of the dynamic isotherm for oleic acid at an air/water interface.

Animals

Transganglionic degeneration in the gustatory system consequent to chorda tympani damage.

The chorda tympani taste nerve is prone to damage in humans. Chorda tympani damage results in taste loss accompanied by altered taste sensations, e.g., phantom tastes. To understand taste alterations this study explores the central and peripheral anatomical consequences of taste nerve injury in an animal model. The chorda tympani was severed in the middle ear of hamsters and the animals were allowed to survive for 2-161 days when sections of the brain were stained for degenerating axons with the Fink-Heimer method. Degenerating axons were present in the chorda tympani termination zone in the nucleus of the solitary tract of every case. Thus, peripheral nerve damage in the taste system results in degeneration of central axonal endings as in other sensory systems (e.g., trigeminal, vestibular). To evaluate whether the central degeneration results from ganglion cell death, geniculate ganglion cells were labeled with Fast blue by tongue injections before neurotomy, and the cells were counted 13-48 days after neurotomy. Numbers of labeled cells from experimental ganglia did not differ significantly from those in control ganglia. Moreover, the experimental cells could be double-labeled by tongue injections with a second marker, diamidino yellow or nuclear yellow, after 40 days postneurotomy. We conclude that degeneration of central axons after taste nerve section represents a long-lasting transganglionic process that likely disrupts the synaptology of the central taste system. The altered synaptology could relate to taste phenomena of central origin reported for nerve-injured patients. Geniculate ganglion cells generally survive neurotomy and can regenerate axons to the tongue.

Animals

Genome-Wide Association Analyses of Bitter Food Preferences Link Genetic Loci to Sensory and Metabolic Pathways.

BACKGROUND: Genetic variation is implicated in individual preferences for bitter-tasting foods. However, previous studies have focused on candidate genes and limited varieties of bitter-tasting foods and have treated food preference scale responses as continuous data. OBJECTIVES: The present investigation aimed to identify genetic variants associated with preferences for bitter-tasting foods using ordinal multinomial regression models in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In addition, post-GWAS functional annotation and mapping, genetic correlations, and associations with dietary intake were examined. METHODS: Food preference and genome-wide genotyping data were used from the UK Biobank (n = 125,578). Preference data from Likert scale rankings (from 1 to 9) for 12 individual foods were analyzed using ordinal multinomial regression GWAS. In addition, 1 composite continuous variable was created for preference for cruciferous vegetables as a group and analyzed using a linear mixed-model GWAS to enable the calculation of a polygenic score (PGS) for cruciferous vegetable preference. Convergent validity of GWAS results was assessed with dietary intake data for the same food items in the CARTaGENE cohort (n = 8176). Post-GWAS gene-level and pathway-level association analyses were conducted in MAGMA (Multimarker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation). RESULTS: Forty-six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified for preferences for 11 bitter-tasting foods at a genome-wide significance level (P < 7.14 &#xd7; 10-9). Gene-set analysis for enrichment identified pathways related to caffeine metabolism and bitter taste perception for preference of coffee without sugar and grapefruit, respectively. Genes with higher expression in brain tissues showed stronger genetic associations with cruciferous vegetable preference. The PGS for cruciferous vegetable preference was weakly correlated with intake (r = 0.05, P < 0.0001), but individual SNPs were not associated with intake in a consistent manner. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variation contributes to preferences for bitter-tasting foods among adults, and some links with food intake are detectable. Nevertheless, effect sizes are small and inconsistent, reflecting the multifactorial complexity of food intake.

bitter taste

Examination of specific nutrition/health behaviors using a social cognitive model.

Nutrition intervention programs are not always successful. In some cases, an insufficient understanding of the interrelationships among factors influencing health behaviors may be responsible for the failures. This study used social cognitive theory, a framework for studying behaviors, to structure the relationships between measurable factors important to the frequency of health-oriented food consumption. We developed a model that incorporated factors for social environment, reinforcement, commitment, behavior modeling, knowledge, and attitude relative to the frequency of consumption of four beverages (whole milk, low-fat/skin milk, regular soda, and diet soda). Four-hundred fifty-seven middle-aged adults (mean age, 47 years; 58% female) and 709 college students (mean age, 21 years; 50% female) responded to a written questionnaire designed as a self-report on frequency of consumption and measures for 10 social cognitive variables. For all four beverages, the model explained 35% or more of the variance in frequency of consumption, thus confirming its predictive power. We used the statistical approach known as path analysis to examine the relationships within the model. The analysis demonstrated that factors influencing the consumption varied between the two age groups (e.g., nutrition knowledge was related to attitude in adult soda-drinking models but not in student soda-drinking models) and between forms of the beverages (e.g., for student models, nutrition knowledge was related to taste enjoyment for low-fat/skim milk but not for whole milk).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

[Psychophysics of sweet taste. II. Statistical theory of the stimulus-response behavior of sweet taste receptors].

Considering various conditions of adaptation, the authors determined the Weber discrimination thresholds for the sweet taste of saccharose. When the adaptation to the basic stimulus is maintained and use is made of the differential coefficient behaviour, the discrimination threshold is an exponential function of the concentration. The discrimination threshold is by definition that amount of stimulant per unit of volume which will produce an effect of the magnitude of 1. Consequently, the numbers of moles being substituted, its reciprocal, the probability of obtaining a stimulus response, is greater than 1. A differential equation, namely (formula: see text), can be formulated as the basis of the stimulus-response behaviour of saccharose, the integration of which yields a discrimination characteristic expressed as (formula: see text). S = concentration of the solution as the stimulus intensity; R = stimulus response expressed in steps. The parameter b is the maximum probability of the stimulus response and can be termed substance-specific concentration coefficient. Rm is the maximum step number when the stimulus intensity tends to infinity; it is also substance-specific. As this characteristic involves both the proportional factors and the differential coefficients, it is called P-D characteristic. From this invariant relationship, the static P characteristic for a very slow increase in stimulus intensity can be derived. When the adaptation to the basic stimulus is abolished by mouth rinsing between tests in paired comparisons, the dependence of the discrimination threshold on the concentration is more than exponential. The stimulus-response characteristics obtained with different time-courses of stimulation are approximated by both the Weber-Fechner and the Stevens law.

Animals

Effects of a model on eating behavior: the induction of a restrained eating style.

An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of a same-sex model on females' eating behavior. The model ate either a large or small quantity along with the subject in an ad lib satiation context, and either did or did not identify herself as a dieter. Subjects were 86 female undergraduates, split into normally dieting or nondieting subgroups. Number of sandwich quarters consumed ad lib following a small fixed preload was found to vary as a function of (a) model's consumption (b) model's dieter status and (c) subject's dieter status; there were no significant interactions. A subsequent taste-rating assessment of nut consumption, in which the model was present but could neither see nor be seen by the subject, indicated that the three factors which had previously affected sandwich consumption independently combined to affect nut consumption interdependently. The results were interpreted in terms of the effect of the model on the quantity and pattern of consumption, and conclusions were drawn about the dynamics of restrained and unrestrained eating and implications for therapy.

Behavior Therapy

Fitting mixture distributions to phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) sensitivity.

A technique for fitting mixture distributions to phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) sensitivity is described. Under the assumptions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, a mixture of three normal components is postulated for the observed distribution, with the mixing parameters corresponding to the proportions of the three genotypes associated with two alleles A and a acting at a single locus. The corresponding genotypes AA, Aa, and aa are then considered to have separate means and variances. This paper is concerned with estimating the parameters of the model, and their standard errors, by using an application of the EM algorithm. This technique also caters for the fact that the sensitivity measurements are only known to lie between the endpoints of certain intervals and that the exact measurement of the attribute is not possible.

Algorithms

Animal models of infantile amnesia, benign senescent forgetfulness, and senile dementia.

The Jacksonian principle of hierarchical development and dissolution of function was applied to infantile amnesia and memory loss in senescence. When the Jacksonian model is generalized to include life-span changes in memory it predicts a last-in, first-out appearance and disappearance of memory processes. Those memory capacities that are the last to appear in ontogeny should be the first to be compromised in aging. To evaluate this proposition in a specific context, the rodent literature on long-term memory in infant, adult, and aged animals was surveyed. Three types of memorial processes that emerged sequentially in development were identified and then examined in adult and aged rats. Although strong support of the Jacksonian principle did not emerge from this analysis, the data were sufficiently positive to suggest that the theory was still viable and even vigorous enough to guide future research on both the normal and pathological processes of development and aging.

Aging

Involvement of the anterior insular gustatory neocortex in taste-potentiated odor aversion learning.

When an odor conditioned stimulus (CS) precedes illness (unconditioned stimulus; UCS), rats acquire relatively weak odor aversions. Conversely, when a compound odor-taste (flavor) CS precedes illness, rats acquire robust aversions both to the odor and to the taste components of a compound flavor CS. Thus, tastes potentiate odor-illness aversions during toxiphobic conditioning. Such conditioning effects have been referred to as taste-potentiated odor aversion learning (POA). Previous neurobehavioral experiments have shown that the anterior insular gustatory neocortex contributes to conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning. The present experiment examined the involvement of the anterior insular gustatory neocortex in CTA learning and POA learning. To that end, four distinct groups of rats received bilateral electrolytic lesion placements in the orbitofrontal neocortex, the "somatic" gustatory neocortex, the anterior insular gustatory neocortex or the posterior insular neocortex. Control animals received anesthesia only. Subgroups of animals thereafter received aversion conditioning using either an odor (almond) CS or a compound odor-taste (almond-saccharin) CS. Aversions to the almond odorant and/or saccharin tastant were evaluated during extinction. Results indicated that animals lacking orbitofrontal neocortex or posterior insular neocortex acquired normal CTAs and POAs. Animals lacking somatic gustatory neocortex exhibited impaired CTA learning, yet those animals showed normal POA learning. Lesions centered in the anterior insular neocortex impaired both CTA learning and POA learning. These results demonstrate that the insular gustatory neocortex is uniquely involved in the higher-order integration of odors, tastes and illness.

Animals