Critchley H D, Rolls E T
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Chem Senses. 1996 Apr;21(2):135-45. doi: 10.1093/chemse/21.2.135.
In order to advance knowledge of the neural control of feeding, we investigated the cortical representation of the taste of tannic acid, which produces the taste of astringency. It is a dietary component of biological importance particularly to arboreal primates. Recordings were made from 74 taste responsive neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex. Single neurons were found that were tuned to respond to 0.001 M tannic acid, and represented a subpopulation of neurons that was distinct from neurons responsive to the tastes of glucose (sweet), NaCl (salty), HCl (sour), quinine (bitter) and monosodium glutamate (umami). In addition, across the population of 74 neurons, tannic acid was as well represented as the tastes of NaCl, HCl quinine or monosodium glutamate. Multidimensional scaling analysis of the neuronal responses to the tastants indicates that tannic acid lies outside the boundaries of the four conventional taste qualities (sweet, sour, bitter and salty). Taken together these data indicate that the astringent taste of tannic acid should be considered as a taste quality, which receives a separate representation from sweet, salt, bitter and sour in the primate cortical taste areas.
为了增进对进食神经控制的了解，我们研究了单宁酸味道的皮层表征，单宁酸会产生涩味。它是一种对生物具有重要意义的饮食成分，对树栖灵长类动物尤为如此。我们从眶额皮质的74个味觉反应神经元进行了记录。发现了单个神经元，它们被调整为对0.001 M单宁酸作出反应，并且代表了一个神经元亚群，该亚群与对葡萄糖（甜）、氯化钠（咸）、盐酸（酸）、奎宁（苦）和谷氨酸钠（鲜味）味道作出反应的神经元不同。此外，在74个神经元群体中，单宁酸的表征与氯化钠、盐酸、奎宁或谷氨酸钠的味道一样好。对味觉刺激物的神经元反应进行的多维标度分析表明，单宁酸位于四种传统味觉品质（甜、酸、苦和咸）的边界之外。综合这些数据表明，单宁酸的涩味应被视为一种味觉品质，在灵长类动物皮层味觉区域中，它与甜、咸、苦和酸有单独的表征。
