PSYCHOPHYSICAL EVALUATION OF TASTE FUNCTION

描述：(改编自申请者摘要) 据估计，200多万美国人患有各种疾病 化学感觉障碍，包括味觉功能受损。这些 损伤显著降低了生活质量并增加了 暴露在与健康相关的风险中。相应地，动物的发育 味觉系统可以被实验操纵的模型是 对于理解正常和非正常的神经生物学 味觉功能异常。感觉和感觉的心理物理评估 任何非人类动物的感知都是具有挑战性的，但这是绝对必要的 整体分析战略的组成部分，旨在了解 感觉功能的神经生物学。在过去的20年里，有几个自交系 小鼠品系已被鉴定为表达不同于 在摄取典型的味道化合物方面， 包括糖、生物碱和盐类。在某些情况下，同源品系已经被 从这些祖细胞菌株衍生而来。此外，与味觉相关的靶基因 小鼠体内的缺失和插入准备工作已经开始出现。只有一个 很少有值得注意的例外，所有这些行为表型都已被识别出来 通过使用解释性有限的长期摄入量测试。具体的 拟议研究的目的是：1)适应当前的心理物理 已成功用于评估大鼠味觉功能的程序 在老鼠身上使用，2)从心理物理上检验这一假设 典型味觉化合物摄入量的差异 近交系小鼠可归因于味觉过程，以及3) 确定味觉功能的哪些维度在选定的自交系中有所不同 不同品系的老鼠。使用理论上相关的原型品味阵列 化合物，PI将测试小鼠的情感反应、阈值 敏感度和辨别能力。考虑到：a)可广泛获得 被怀疑具有不同口味表型的近交系菌株 响应性，b)分子技术的快速发展步伐 识别并选择性地操纵小鼠基因组，以及c)出现 转基因NIH小鼠基因组倡议，提出的研究是及时和 这很重要，而且可能会促进我们对 味觉功能的神经生物学基础。

DESCRIPTION:(adapted from applicant's abstract) It is estimated that more than 2 million Americans suffer from a variety of chemosensory disorders, including impairments of gustatory function. These impairments significantly detract from the quality of life and increase exposure to health-related risks. Accordingly, the development of animal models, in which the gustatory system can be experimentally manipulated, is essential to gain an understanding of the underlying neurobiology of normal and abnormal taste function. The psychophysical assessment of sensation and perception in any nonhuman animal is challenging, but an absolutely necessary component to the overall analytical strategy aimed at understanding the neurobiology of sensory function. Over the last 2 decades, several inbred strains of mice have been identified as expressing phenotypes that differ from each other with respect to the ingestion of prototypical taste compounds, including sugars, alkaloids and salts. In some cases, congenic lines have been derived from these progenitor strains. In addition, taste-related targeted gene deletion and insertion preparations in mice have begun to appear. With only a few notable exceptions, all of these behavioral phenotypes have been identified through the use of interpretively limited long-term intake tests. The specific aims of the proposed research are: 1) to adapt current psychophysical procedures that have successfully been used to assess taste function in rats for use with mice, 2) to psychophysically test the hypothesis that significant differences in the intake of prototypical taste compounds between selected inbred strains of mice are attributable to gustatory processes, and 3) to determine which dimensions of gustatory function differ among selected inbred strains of mice. Using a theoretically relevant array of prototypical taste compounds, the PI will test mice for their affective responsiveness, threshold sensitivity, and discriminative capacity. Given: a) the wide availability of inbred strains suspected of possessing differing phenotypes in taste responsiveness, b) the rapid developmental pace of molecular techniques to discern and selectively manipulate the mouse genome, and c) the emergence of the trans-NIH mouse genome initiative, the proposed research is timely and important, and will likely facilitate advances in our understanding of the neurobiological basis of gustatory function.