Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:43:20.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The complex facts of taste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2008

A. W. Logue
Affiliation:
City University of New York, New York, NY 10075. [email protected]://www.awlogue.com

Abstract

There is both empirical evidence that supports, and does not support, the four basic tastes, as well as the labeled-line and across-fiber pattern theories. All of these concepts have proven useful to researchers investigating taste coding, and should be appreciated for their heuristic value. Dismissal of any of them is neither supported by evidence nor productive.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amoore, J. E., Johnston, J. W. & Rubin, M. (1964) The stereochemical theory of odor. Scientific American 210(2):4249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartoshuk, L. M. (1988) Taste. In: Stevens' handbook of experimental psychology, vol. 1, 2nd edition, ed. Atkinson, R. C., Herrnstein, R. J., Lindzey, G. & Luce, R. D., pp. 461–99. Wiley.Google Scholar
Logue, A. W. (2004) The psychology of eating and drinking, 3rd edition. Brunner-Routledge.Google Scholar
Pfaffmann, C. (1941) Gustatory afferent impulses. Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology 17:243–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaffmann, C., Frank, M. & Norgren, R. (1979) Neural mechanisms and behavioral aspects of taste. Annual Review of Psychology 30:283325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sclafani, A. (2004) The sixth taste? Appetite 43:13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, T. R., Giza, B. K. & Yan, J. (1998) Electrophysiological responses to bitter stimuli in primate cortex. In: Olfaction and taste XII: An international symposium, ed. Murphy, C., pp. 498501. New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Scott, T. R. & Plata-Salaman, C. R. (1991) Coding of taste quality. In: Smell and taste in health and disease, ed. Getchell, T. V., Bartoshuk, L. M., Doty, R. L. & Snow, J. B., pp. 345–68. Raven Press.Google Scholar
Smith, D. V. & Margolskee, R. F. (2001) Making sense of taste. Scientific American 284:3239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, Y., Hoon, M. A., Chandrashekar, J., Mueller, K. L., Cook, B., Wu, D., Zuker, C. S. & Ryba, J. P. (2003) Coding of sweet, bitter, and umami tastes: Different receptor cells sharing similar signaling pathways. Cell 112:293301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed