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PubMed1989

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↗
PubMed1993

What's so special about special visceral?

The brainstem is classically divided into functional columns including special and general subdivisions for somatic and visceral components. The term 'special visceral motor' is applied to branchiomotor nuclei, while 'special visceral sensory' refers to nuclei devoted to incoming gustatory and olfactory senses. The use of the term 'special visceral motor' is questioned in that the branchiomotor neurons function more like general somatic than general visceral motoneurons. The designation of taste and smell as 'special visceral sensory' systems seems inconsistent on several bases. First, taste and smell are not homologous systems: (1) the receptors are grossly dissimilar in morphology and relationship to other elements of the nervous system; (2) the two systems mediate very different behaviors and respond to different types of chemical stimuli, and (3) chemosensory systems are not 'special' (i.e. limited to cranial nerves) in that solitary chemoreceptor cells, which are distributed across the body surface, can be innervated by spinal or cranial nerves. Finally, taste is considered 'special' because it involves specialized chemosensory end organs; the visceral nerves also provide innervation to other specialized chemoreceptors (e.g. carotid body) which are considered part of the general visceral sensory system. Thus the term 'special visceral sensory' appears without solid foundation when applied to gustatory systems in contradistinction to nongustatory branchial and thoracic interoceptive systems. A reformulation of the functional columns of the brainstem is suggested in which six columns can be identified: (1) somatic motor; (2) branchial motor; (3) visceral motor; (4) visceral sensory; (5) somatic sensory, and (6) hair cell (dorsolateral placode) sensory.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

[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↗
PubMed1993

Dynamic contrast: a sensory contribution to palatability.

By focusing on a sensory model for palatability, the "ice-cream effect", we speculate on some principles underlying palatability. We propose that the most highly palatable foods are likely to have higher levels of "dynamic contrast" (moment-to-moment sensory contrast from the everchanging properties of foods manipulated in the mouth). The sensory feature contributing most to dynamic contrast seems to be somatosensation. Texture, for example, over the course of masticating a crunchy food, changes markedly such that each alteration contributes differently and dynamically to sensory contrast. Our purpose herein is to propose that dynamic contrast contributes significantly to palatability of foods and beverages.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

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↗
PubMed1991

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↗
PubMedDate not supplied

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↗
PubMed1985

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↗
PubMed1976

Temporal properties of the human taste system.

An attempt to apply linear systems methods to the temporal properties of the human taste system is described. The percentage modulation in concentration required to detect a fluctuation in intensity was measured as a function of frequency of modulation. Both a sine-wave and a square-wave input were used. The sensitivity of the taste system at its maximum, and also at the low frequencies, was greater than expected from previous work based on classical methodology. The sensitivity of the taste system at its maximum, and also at the low frequencies, was greater then expected from previous work base on classical methodology. The sensitivity of the taste system to the various qualities was, in decreasing order, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. The taste system in insensitive to frequencies above about 5 Hz. Except for bitter, representatives of the various taste qualities yielded similar functions within qualities.

Adaptation, Physiological↗