Abstract
The five universally accepted tastes, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (a savory sensation elicited by monosodium glutamate) have specific receptors in oral, pharyngeal and laryngeal regions [1]. The most credited candidates to the function of human primary taste cortex are the frontal operculum and the anterior insula; while the opercular cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex are thought to code for secondary gustatory functions, while the amygdale and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are involved as hierarchically superior processing units [2]. Conversely, more is known on the peripheral pathway of taste, including the molecular dynamics of many receptors [3].
Highlights
The five universally accepted tastes, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami have specific receptors in oral, pharyngeal and laryngeal regions [1].The most credited candidates to the function of human primary taste cortex are the frontal operculum and the anterior insula; while the opercular cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex are thought to code for secondary gustatory functions, while the amygdale and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are involved as hierarchically superior processing units [2]
We investigated the effect of carbonation on the brain processing of sweet stimuli
We investigated the central neural pathway in response to gustatory stimulation by sucrose and the modulation of sweet perception operated by carbonation, monitoring the changes in blood oxygenation with blood oxygenationlevel–dependent (BOLD) fMRI
Summary
The five universally accepted tastes, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (a savory sensation elicited by monosodium glutamate) have specific receptors in oral, pharyngeal and laryngeal regions [1].The most credited candidates to the function of human primary taste cortex are the frontal operculum and the anterior insula; while the opercular cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex are thought to code for secondary gustatory functions, while the amygdale and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are involved as hierarchically superior processing units [2]. In addition to the basic tastes, the gustatory system appears responsive to CO2 but the presence of specific CO2 peripheral receptors and central neural pathway is still debated [4]. In the absence of a dedicated neural processing and cortical representation, CO2 might still induce a powerful modulation of different gustatory inputs, implying that sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness, and umami, or their combination in specific beverages, may be perceived as profoundly different in the presence of carbonation. The contribution of carbonation to taste may not even be properly gustatory in nature, given that the CO2 stimulation operates on mechanical and chemical trigeminal receptors that provide tactile, proprioceptive, chemosensory and nociceptive information from face, mouth, and nose [6]
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