Memory Load Influences Taste Sensitivities

Early influences on taste preferences.

Angiotensin II modulates salty and sweet taste sensitivities.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying gustatory detection of dietary sodium is important for the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Here, we show that Angiotensin II (AngII), a major mediator of body fluid and sodium homeostasis, modulates salty and sweet taste sensitivities, and that this modulation critically influences ingestive behaviors in mice. Gustatory nerve recording demonstra...

Leptin as a modulator of sweet taste sensitivities in mice.

Leptin acts as a potent inhibitory factor against obesity by regulating energy expenditure, food intake, and adiposity. The obese diabetic db/db mouse, which has defects in leptin receptor, displays enhanced neural responses and elevated behavioral preference to sweet stimuli. Here, we show the effects of leptin on the peripheral taste system. An administration of leptin into lean mice suppress...

Gustatory insular cortex, aversive taste memory and taste neophobia.

Prior research indicates a role for the gustatory insular cortex (GC) in taste neophobia. Rats with lesions of the GC show much weaker avoidance to a novel and potentially dangerous taste than do neurologically intact animals. The current study used the retention of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) as a tool to determine whether the GC modulates neophobia by processing taste novelty or taste da...

Cultural influences on memory.

Research reveals dramatic differences in the ways that people from different cultures perceive the world around them. Individuals from Western cultures tend to focus on that which is object-based, categorically related, or self-relevant whereas people from Eastern cultures tend to focus more on contextual details, similarities, and group-relevant information. These different ways of perceiving ...