Neural Taste and Thermal Coding in Geniculate Ganglion

描述（由申请人提供）：味觉是食物选择和摄取的关键感官系统。在目前的资助期间获得的结果提供了有趣的新发现，关于温度如何刺激特定类型的味觉神经元，钠剥夺如何增加盐摄入的显着性，以及对脂肪味道的行为反应。本计划的长期目标是研究：（1）外周味觉神经元的温度处理机制和行为研究中的味觉-温度相互作用;（2）醛固酮和体内钠水平作为盐味觉神经反应中剥夺诱导变化的介体的作用;（3）脂肪味觉的感觉处理和脂肪对其他味觉刺激的调节。这些都是重要的未回答的问题，在该领域的化学传感器的研究，从逻辑上遵循我们以前的工作，将解决与电生理和行为的方法，明确开发上述目的。具体的目标包括调查是否味觉和热刺激有添加剂的影响，在特定类型的外周味觉神经元和热刺激本身是否elelafferent大鼠的味觉。我们还将确定TRPM 8通道是否是介导味觉神经元对冷却的反应的机制。我们还建议研究短期饮食钠剥夺对盐刺激味觉神经反应的影响，这种变化的机制，以及体内钠水平的补充是否会恢复味觉神经反应。最后，我们将探讨味觉神经对脂肪单独和与其他味觉刺激相结合的反应，并将进行研究，以评估味觉神经对脂肪味觉和脂肪味觉介导的行为检测的贡献。总的来说，该项目将使用单细胞和全神经记录来阐明外周味觉神经元和行为方法中温度，盐和脂肪的信息处理，以帮助解决这些重要刺激如何介导行为变化的奥秘。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Taste is a critical sensory system for food selection and ingestion. Results obtained during the current funding period have provided intriguing new findings about how temperature is a stimulus for specific types of gustatory neurons, how sodium deprivation increase the salience of salt intake, and about behavioral responses to the taste of fat. The long-term objectives of this proposal are to investigate: (1) temperature- processing mechanisms in peripheral taste neurons and taste-temperature interaction in behavioral studies; (2) the role of aldosterone and body sodium levels as mediators for deprivation-induced changes in salt taste nerve responses; and (3) sensory processing of fat taste and the modulation of other taste stimuli by fat. These are significant unanswered questions in the field of chemosensory research that follow logically from our previous work and that will be addressed with electrophysiological and behavioral methodology developed explicitly for the purposes outlined above. The specific aims include investigating whether taste and thermal stimulation have additive effects in specific types of peripheral taste neurons and whether thermal stimulation itself elicits taste sensations in rats. We will also determine whether the TRPM8 channel is the mechanism that mediates responses to cooling in taste neurons. We also propose to investigate the effect of brief dietary sodium deprivation on taste nerve responsiveness to salt stimulation, the mechanism(s) that underlie such changes, and whether repletion of body sodium levels restores taste nerve responsiveness. Finally, we will explore taste nerve responses to fat alone and in combination with other taste stimuli, and will conduct studies to evaluate the contribution of gustatory nerves to the detection of fat taste and fat taste-mediated behaviors. Overall, this project will use single-cell and whole nerve recording to illuminate information processing of temperature, salt, and fat in peripheral taste neurons and behavioral methods to help solve the mystery of how these important stimuli mediate changes in behavior.