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What are the 5 tastes and what is their location on the tongue?
Bitter → Back of tongue
Sweet → Tip of the tongue
Sour → Front sides
Salty → Back sides
Umami → Middle of tongue
Why do we lick ice cream cones?
Because it activates sweet receptors on the tip of the tongue
What are the different shapes of papillae?
Foliate papillae → ridges
Vallate papillae → pimples
Fungiform papillae → mushrooms
Describe a taste bud.
Each taste bud contains 50-150 taste receptor cells
Visible only with a microscope
Have basal cells that surround the taste receptor cells
Have a set of gustatory afferent axons
A person typically has 2000-5000 taste buds, as few as 500 and as many as 20000
Describe the connectivity of taste cells.
Taste cells form synapses with the endings of the gustatory afferent axons near the the bottom part of the taste bud
How does a receptor potential lead to neurotransmitter release?
When an appropriate chemical activates a taste receptor cell, its membrane potential changes, usually by depolarizing (receptor potential)
If that receptor potential is large enough, some taste receptors may fire action potentials.
Depolarization causes voltage-gated calcium channels to open
Ca2+ enters the cytoplasm, triggering the release of transmitter molecules
Describe the transduction mechanisms for salty.
Describe the transduction mechanisms for sweet.
Write out the transduction pathway for bitter/sweet/umami from binding to the receptor to neurotransmitter release.
Write the central taste pathway from the cranial nerves to the cortex.
What happens when we lesion the VPM/gustatory cortex, hypothalamus/amygdala?
Describe population coding for taste.
What is a pheromone?
How do pheromones differ in animals and humans?
What is the role of olfactory epithelium?
What is the role of mucus?
Describe the intracellular signaling triggered by an odorant binding.
What makes us stop smelling a new smell we encounter?
Describe population coding for odorants.
Describe glomeruli and how they relate to a sensory map.
Describe the olfactory pathway from receptor cell to cortex.
What makes the olfactory pathway different from the other senses?
Describe olfactory maps.