• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.17-25
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• 1997

The evoked potentials for concentrations of solutions of the four qualities of tastes(i.e., sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes) were measured. The solution was applied to the chorda tympani nerve located on the left side of the tongue at 20mm from the tip and 15mm left from the center line. The evoked potentials were detected from Cz referred to A1(left lobe) with the ground at the Fpz position. The Maximum potential level and its latency were evaluated. The individual threshold level of concentration of the solutions of four tastes were measured. Artificial saliva was used as a control solution. The evoked positive potentials for four qualities of tastes (i.e., gustatory evokde potentials) were found to be around 150ms by averaging eight responses. The arbitrary concentration of the solutions were presented by the relative concentration, which was the ratio of the arbitrary concentration to the individual threshold level. The characteristic relations between the latency and the relative concentration ;and those between the potential level and the relative concentration were evaluated. These evalutions showed that (1) the latencies for salty and bitter tastes denoted the minimum values due to for the change of relative concentration, and that (2) the latency for sour taste decreased as the relative concentrations increased, while the latency for sweet taste denoted the inverse tendency, Sinificant differences between any two maximum potential levels were not recognized. A response latencies to sucrose were abolished after treatment of tongue by a sweet-suppressing agent.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.169-175
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• 2000

To learn the developmental changes in intrinsic electrophysiological properties of the second order taste neurons, whole cell recordings from the developing nucleus of the solitary tract neurons were done in brainstem slices of postnatal rats. Rats aged from postnatal 0 to 21 days (P0-P21) were used, being divided into 3 age groups: postnatal first week (P0-P7 days), second week (P8-P14 days), and third week (P15-P21 days). Slices containing gustatory NTS were cut horizontally in the thickness of $300\;{\mu}m.$ Whole cell recordings were obtained from neurons in response to a series of hyperpolarizing and depolarizing current pulses. The intrinsic electrophysiological properties of the rostral NTS (rNTS) neurons were compared among the age groups. Depolarizing current pulses evoked a train of action potentials in all neurons of all age groups. The resting membrane potential and input resistance of the neurons did not show any significant differences during the postnatal 3 weeks. The time constant, however, decreased during the development. Duration of action potential measured at half maximum amplitude was longer in younger age groups. Both the maximum rate of rise and the maximum rate of fall in the action potential increased during the first 3 weeks postnatal. Electrophysiologically more than half neurons were type III. In summary, it is suggested that developmental changes in electrophysiological properties in rNTS occur during the first three weeks in rats.