Dr. Spector's long-term goal is to conduct sophisticated research on taste and feeding that is explicitly coordinated with anatomical and electrophysiological approaches under a unified experimental framework. The overall goal of the proposed research plan is to specify formal correspondences between the measured psychophysical characteristics of the animal and the electrophysiological properties characterizing peripheral taste afferents. These experiments are designed to make refined psychophysical assessments of taste function before and after selective gustatory nerve transection in rats. The behavioral tasks are designed to measure the detectability, the suprathreshold taste functions, and the between-stimulus discriminability associated with an array of theoretically relevant taste compounds.
The specific aims of this research are: 1) to specify the relative contribution of the various gustatory nerves to taste sensibility in an effort to reveal the peripheral organization of the gustatory system; 2) to identify significant features of the neural coding process by comparing psychophysically measured changes in sensory function as a result of specific nerve transection with the known response properties of afferents from both the removed and remaining fields; and 3) to provide a consistent parametric psychophysical data base for rat gustation to guide the analysis and interpretation of neurophysiological findings in both the peripheral and central nervous system. A better understanding of the neural organization of taste processes should facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of chemosensory and neurological disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Modified Research Career Development Award (K04)
Project #
5K04DC000104-05
Application #
2856576
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1995-01-01
Project End
1999-12-31
Budget Start
1999-01-01
Budget End
1999-12-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Florida
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
073130411
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32611
Spector, Alan C (2015) Behavioral analyses of taste function and ingestion in rodent models. Physiol Behav 152:516-26
King, Camille Tessitore; Deyrup, Leif D; Dodson, Sara E et al. (2003) Effects of gustatory nerve transection and regeneration on quinine-stimulated Fos-like immunoreactivity in the parabrachial nucleus of the rat. J Comp Neurol 465:296-308
Kopka, S L; Geran, L C; Spector, A C (2000) Functional status of the regenerated chorda tympani nerve as assessed in a salt taste discrimination task. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 278:R720-31
King, C T; Garcea, M; Spector, A C (2000) Glossopharyngeal nerve regeneration is essential for the complete recovery of quinine-stimulated oromotor rejection behaviors and central patterns of neuronal activity in the nucleus of the solitary tract in the rat. J Neurosci 20:8426-34
Geran, L C; Spector, A C (2000) Amiloride increases sodium chloride taste detection threshold in rats. Behav Neurosci 114:623-34
Eylam, S; Garcea, M; Spector, A C (2000) Glossopharyngeal nerve transection does not alter taste reactivity to sucrose conditioned to be aversive. Chem Senses 25:423-8
Spector, A C (2000) Linking gustatory neurobiology to behavior in vertebrates. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 24:391-416
Geran, L C; Spector, A C (2000) Sodium taste detectability in rats is independent of anion size: the psychophysical characteristics of the transcellular sodium taste transduction pathway. Behav Neurosci 114:1229-38
King, C T; Travers, S P; Rowland, N E et al. (1999) Glossopharyngeal nerve transection eliminates quinine-stimulated fos-like immunoreactivity in the nucleus of the solitary tract: implications for a functional topography of gustatory nerve input in rats. J Neurosci 19:3107-21
Markison, S; Gietzen, D W; Spector, A C (1999) Essential amino acid deficiency enhances long-term intake but not short-term licking of the required nutrient. J Nutr 129:1604-12

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