NEUR 2500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Taste, Lingual Papilla, Epiglottis
Document Summary
Taste perception: activate different combination of tastes, distinct flavor from taste and smell, sensory modalities such as texture and temperature (also pain for spicy flavor) Small projections on the surface of the tongue. 50-150 arranged within taste buds like an orange, are not neurons. 90% respond to two or more basic tastes. Minimum concentration of taste stimuli that can evoke perception of taste. Papillae become less selective, respond to multiple tastes. Chemically sensitive part of a taste receptor cell, near the surface of the tongue. Small opening on the surface of tongue where taste cell is exposed to contents of mouth. Form synapses with ends of gustatory afferent axons, also synapse to basal cells. Ca2+ enters the cell and triggers neurotransmitter release. Voltage shift of membrane potential which if large enough, can fire action potentials. Process by which an environmental stimulus causes an electrical response in a a sensory receptor cell.
