HLTH 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Chemical Change, Geophagia, Phenylthiocarbamide
5 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
To recognize the importance of sensory perceptions of taste on human health. To list the key parameters for taste. To compare the ways that different groups classify taste. To explain why taste is an important human adaptation. A single taste bud contains 50-100 taste cells representing all 5 taste sensations. Each taste cell has receptors on it apical surface. Transmembrane proteins which admit the ions that give rise to the sensations of salty and sour. Bind to the molecules that give rise to the sensations of sweet, bitter, and umami. A single taste cell seems to be restricted to expressing only a single type of receptor. Taste receptor cells are connected, through an atp-releasing synapse, to a sensory neuron leading back to the brain. However, a single sensory neuron can be connected to several taste cells in each of several different taste buds. The sensation of taste--like all sensations--resides in the brain.
