THE CHEMICAL SENSES (OLFACTORY AND TASTE)

Aqsa Sjuhada
draqsas@yahoo.ca http://sjuhada.blogdetik.com

Overview The Chemical Senses

Olfaction Taste

Perceptual Development
How to study perceptual development The Chemical Senses Touch
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Taste and Smell Molecule detectors!

Identify which things should be consumed or rejected

The receptors constantly undergo neurogenesis

Every 5-7 weeks!

The Olfactory System

The Olfactory Mucosa

Surface of olfactory mucosa - heavily ciliated

Surface area of olfactory mucosa ~500 mm2

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Olfactory Receptor Neurons (ORNs)

~107

Olfactory Receptors (ORs)

~104 of each type

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The Olfactory Bulb

~103

Glomeruli
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Neural Code for Odor Molecules

Responses of glomeruli are bilaterally symmetric Odotope: a group of odorants that share a specific chemical feature, such as the length of the carbon side chain, that determines neural firing. Glomeruli seem to be tuned to side chain length.
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Meister M, Bonhoeffer T (2001). Journal of Neuroscience 21:1351-60

The Olfactory Pathway

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Cognitive Factors in Olfaction

We may be very sensitive in discriminating between different odors.

But odor identification relies heavily on memory, just like object recognition in vision.
We have to assign labels to odors, and then be able to retrieve those labels later on, which is a complicated process. Training improves odor identification.

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Overview The Chemical Senses

Olfaction Taste

Perceptual Development
How to study perceptual development The Chemical Senses Touch
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Foliate papillae

Taste

Circumvillate papilla

Filiform papillae Fungiform papilla

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Taste Buds

Taste pore

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Taste Receptors
Specialized receptors
2nd messenger cAMP pathway

Ion Channels
Salt = Na+ClSour = Acid = H+

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Taste Pathway

Chorda tympani --> Facial nerve Glossopharyngeal nerve Vagus nerve

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Taste Quality
~25% of the population are very sensitive to the bitter chemical, PROP - 6-n-propylthiouracil These people have more fungiform papillae and tastebuds. These supertasters are more sensitive to bitter substances. - tend not to like green vegetables and fatty foods.
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Neural Code for Taste Quality

Is the neural coding for taste distributed or specific? Distributed coding: - across-fiber pattern coding - a fiber has a preferred taste but also responds to other taste stimmuli Specific coding: - nerve fiber response to only one taste Probably both are correct! - taste coding may involve the comparison of activity across groups of fibers that respond preferentially to specific tastes - analogous to cone photopigments in colour vision
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Flavour
Flavour = Taste + Olfaction

Plugging your nose while eating changes the taste of the food.
Foods flavour becomes less pleasant as you eat - Alliesthesia = changed sensation - Sensory-specific satiety Orbital Frontal Cortex (OFC): taste and smell responses are combined here

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Orbital Frontal Cortex (OFC)

OFC

Rolls, 2004
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OFC Connectivity

Bimodal neurons in OFC - e.g. taste + smell - e.g. taste + vision Firing rate of these cells decreases as hunger decreases.

Adapted from Rolls, 2004

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