Taste quality and intensity: lessons from the Morrison technique

Sodium Carbonate is Saltier Than Sodium Chloride to Sodium-Depleted Rats

In a series of behavioral experiments in the 1960s, G.R. Morrison identified several unique features of the taste of Na2CO3 to rats; namely, it is 1) considerably more intense than NaCl at isomolar concentrations, 2) avoided at 10 times lower concentrations than NaCl to thirsty rats, 3) preferred at 10 times lower concentrations than NaCl in sodium-depleted rats. He also demonstrated its qualitatively similarity to NaCl. In Experiment 1, we confirmed and extended many of Morrison's observations. Rats were injected with furosemide on 3 occasions to stimulate a sodium appetite. After each depletion, rats were given a brief-access taste test in a lickometer presenting, in random order, water and 7 concentrations of salt. One test used NaCl (0.028-0.89 M, quarter log steps), another used Na2CO3, and the third used Na2CO3, but at a tenfold lower concentration range (0.0028-0.089 M). Rats licked NaCl in an inverted-U shaped concentration-response function peaking at 0.158-0.281 M. As Morrison's results predicted, rats licked Na2CO3 in nearly identical fashion, but at a tenfold lower concentration range (peak at 0.0158-0.028 M). In a second experiment, furosemide-treated rats were repeatedly tested with the lower Na2CO3 range but mixed in the epithelial sodium channel blocker amiloride at various concentrations (3-300 μM, half log steps). Amiloride reduced licking for Na2CO3 and shifted the peak response rightward up to about half a log unit. Thus, this "super-saltiness" of Na2CO3 to rats is at least partly amiloride-dependent.

Taste information derived from T1R-expressing taste cells in mice

The taste system of animals is used to detect valuable nutrients and harmful compounds in foods. In humans and mice, sweet, bitter, salty, sour and umami tastes are considered the five basic taste qualities. Sweet and umami tastes are mediated by G-protein-coupled receptors, belonging to the T1R (taste receptor type 1) family. This family consists of three members (T1R1, T1R2 and T1R3). They function as sweet or umami taste receptors by forming heterodimeric complexes, T1R1+T1R3 (umami) or T1R2+T1R3 (sweet). Receptors for each of the basic tastes are thought to be expressed exclusively in taste bud cells. Sweet (T1R2+T1R3-expressing) taste cells were thought to be segregated from umami (T1R1+T1R3-expressing) taste cells in taste buds. However, recent studies have revealed that a significant portion of taste cells in mice expressed all T1R subunits and responded to both sweet and umami compounds. This suggests that sweet and umami taste cells may not be segregated. Mice are able to discriminate between sweet and umami tastes, and both tastes contribute to behavioural preferences for sweet or umami compounds. There is growing evidence that T1R3 is also involved in behavioural avoidance of calcium tastes in mice, which implies that there may be a further population of T1R-expressing taste cells that mediate aversion to calcium taste. Therefore the simple view of detection and segregation of sweet and umami tastes by T1R-expressing taste cells, in mice, is now open to re-examination.

Taste quality and intensity of 100 stimuli as reported by rats: the taste-location association task

The interpretation of neural activity related to sensory stimulation requires an understanding of the subject’s perception of the stimulation. Previous methods used to evaluate the perception of chemosensory stimuli by rodents have distinct limitations. We developed a novel behavioral paradigm, the taste–location association task, to complement these methods. First we tested if rats are able to learn associations between five basic taste stimuli and their spatial locations. This spatial task was based on four prototypical tastants and water. All four rats trained to perform the task reached levels of performance well above chance. Control trials demonstrated that the rats used only taste cues. Further, the learned stimulus set was resistant to interference, allowing for generalization experiments performed subsequently. We tested the rats’ gustatory generalizations of 100 tastants to the five trained stimuli, both regarding their taste qualities as well as intensity ratings. The taste profiles generated by these experiments contribute to the understanding of how perception of the specific taste stimuli relate to the perception of the five basic taste qualities in intact behaving rats. In this large taste space we found that intensity plays a major role. Furthermore, umami stimuli were not reported as being similar to other basic tastants. Our new paradigm enables neurophysiological studies of taste-based learning and memory in awake, freely moving animals.

Calcium: taste, intake, and appetite

This review summarizes research on sensory and behavioral aspects of calcium homeostasis. These are fragmented fields, with essentially independent lines of research involving gustatory electrophysiology in amphibians, ethological studies in wild birds, nutritional studies in poultry, and experimental behavioral studies focused primarily on characterizing the specificity of the appetite in rats. Recently, investigators have begun to examine potential physiological mechanisms underlying calcium intake and appetite. These include changes in the taste perception of calcium, signals related to blood calcium concentrations, and actions of the primary hormones of calcium homeostasis: parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Other influences on calcium intake include reproductive and adrenal hormones and learning. The possibility that a calcium appetite exists in humans is discussed. The broad range of observations documenting the existence of a behavioral limb of calcium homeostasis provides a strong foundation for future genetic and physiological analyses of this behavior.