Recovery of excitability after gustatory adaptation: effects of stimulus intensity.

The excitability of the rat chorda tympani nerve following adaptation to NaCl was measured by observing the recovery of the transient portion of the integrated neural response. When a single concentration of NaCl was used as a test stimulus, recovery time was positively correlated with the concentration of the adapting solution, a relationship common to a number of other sensory systems. Adapting and testing with the same concentration of NaCl produced very little relationship between concentration and recovery time. It is suggested that the relativley extensive period of postexcitatory depression is due to a prolonged inaccessability of tast receptor sites that results in a reduction in the rate of stimulus-receptor interaction.