Somatosensory Factors in Human Taste and Flavor Perception

描述（由申请人提供）：没有比指导和激励选择和消费安全和营养食品更重要的感官功能。这种功能大部分是由口和鼻的感觉系统来完成的，它们共同产生了食物的味道。虽然研究几乎完全集中在味觉和鼻后嗅觉上，但风味的热、机械和化学感觉成分也很重要。因此，本项目的长期目标是了解躯体感觉刺激以何种方式和通过何种机制促进风味感知。与过去的资助时期一样，当前时期的心理物理学研究发现了以前未被认识到的温度和触摸对味觉和化学感觉的影响。拟议的项目将集中在甜味，苦味和口腔化学的味觉，味觉和化学转导的分子和细胞机制的影响温度的差异影响。具体而言，目标1将测试温度主要通过调节适应的速率和程度（可能通过T1 R2-T1 R3甜味受体的构象变化）影响甜味的假设。目的二是探讨阳离子通道TPRM 5在热味觉感知现象中的潜在作用及其对甜味适应的抵消作用。目的3将研究温度对苦味感知的差异性影响，目的是确定这些影响与不同苦味转导模式的关系，包括TRPM 5的可能贡献。最后，目标4将测量温度如何影响盐和酸的味道和化学感觉，具体目标是测试其化学感觉质量主要通过不同的热敏TRP通道（即TRPV 1与TRPA 1）诱发的假设。这些目标将使我们更全面地了解温度影响味觉和风味的方式，同时也为主要在动物模型中开发的人类化学感受机制假说提供了独特的测试。因此，这种转化研究对于促进我们对人类细胞和分子机制的理解非常重要，这可能导致解决对饮食和健康产生不利影响的味觉和风味功能障碍的新策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is no more vital sensory function than guiding and motivating the selection and consumption of safe and nutritious foods. Much of this function is carried-out by the sensory systems of the mouth and nose which together give rise to the flavor of foods. Although research has focused almost exclusively on the senses of taste and retronasal olfaction, also important are the thermal, mechanical, and chemesthetic components of flavor. The long-term goal of this project is therefore to understand in what ways and via which mechanisms somatosensory stimuli contribute to flavor perception. As in past funding periods, psychophysical studies in the current period have led to the discovery of previously unrecognized effects of temperature and touch on taste and chemesthesis. The proposed project will focus on differential effects of temperature on sweet taste, bitter taste, and oral chemesthesis that have implications for the molecular and cellular mechanisms of gustatory and chemesthetic transduction. Specifically, Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that temperature affects sweet taste primarily by modulating the rate and degree of adaptation, possibly by changes in conformation of the T1R2- T1R3 sweet taste receptor. Aim 2 will investigate the potential role of the cation channel TPRM5 in the perceptual phenomenon of Thermal Taste and its possible contribution to the counteraction of sweet taste adaptation. Aim 3 will investigate the differentia effects of temperature on bitter taste perception with the goal of determining the relationship of these effects to different modes of bitter taste transduction, including the possible contribution f TRPM5. Finally, Aim 4 will measure how temperature influences the taste and chemesthetic sensations of salts and acids with the specific goal of testing the hypothesis that their chemesthetic qualities are evoked primarily via different thermally-sensitive TRP channels (i.e. TRPV1 vs. TRPA1). Together these aims will lead to a more complete understanding of the ways in which temperature affects taste and flavor, while also providing unique tests of hypotheses about chemosensory mechanisms in humans that have been developed primarily in animal models. Translational research of this kind is therefore important for advancing our understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms in humans that could lead to new strategies for addressing dysfunctions of taste and flavor that adversely affect diet and health.