Review Article – Making Sense of Taste Scientific American
To locate this article
1. From the LBCC home page enter the LBCC Library home page, Student / Student Support / Library
2. Select Journal Databases
if you are off campus the user ID is last name and then year of birth
3. Select Scientific American (Scroll down)
4. In the Find Box enter the title ”Making Sense of Taste”
5. Click Search
6. Select PDF Full Text. Once it loads you can save the article, print, or read the article online.
*By: David Smith and Robert Margolskee (2006)
Answer the following questions and turn in by the due date: ______________________
1. What three components of sensation are related to the sense of taste perceived by the tongue?
2. What is a tastant?
3. Name and briefly describe the four types of papillae found on the human tongue.
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4. What is unusual about the filiform papillae?
5. Examine and describe the shape of an individual taste bud, explaining where exactly they are found in the context of the papilla.
6. How many taste cells are typically found on a single taste bud?
7. The electrical changes in the taste cells that prompt signals to the brain are based on the varying concentrations of __________________________.
8. What is the role of neurotransmitters in taste cells?
9. Explain the role of ion channels in the perceptions of salty and sour tastes.
10. What is gustducin and why is this so important to the author’s article?
11. Are individual taste c3ells oriented to specific taste stimuli? Explain
12. In the case of acids what specific chemical causes depolarization? Which type of taste is this phenomenon associated with?
13. What is a gustatorial neuron? Explain the role of this microscopic structure.
14. The author’s conclusion is that things that taste alone evoke similar patterns of activity across groups of taste neurons. In your own words how the sense/brain connection perceives taste within the context of neurons.
15. How did the diuretic drug amiloride provide insight to the function of neuron groups and how the body discriminates different chemicals.
16. What portion of the brain responds to the perception of foods or plants that might be harmful to us? How might this be an “adaptive” trait in the context of survival?
17. Following the reading of this article address why the traditional “taste maps” seen in the textbooks needs to be revised. What you would report to a fellow student who did not read this article that sweet sensations are not always found on the tip of the tongue or the taste of bitter at the back of the tongue.