Non-synaptic transformation of gustatory receptor potential by stimulation of the parasympathetic fiber of the frog glossopharyngeal nerve.

Abstract

When the glossopharyngeal nerve (GP) in the frog was strongly stimulated electrically, slow potentials were elicited from the tongue surface and taste cells in the fungiform papillae. Injection of atropine completely blocked these slow potentials. The present and previous data indicate that the slow potentials induced in the tongue surface and taste cells are due to a liquid junction potential between saliva secreted from the lingual glands due to parasympathetic fiber activity and an adapting solution on the tongue surface. Intracellularly recorded depolarizing receptor potentials in taste cells induced by 0.5 M NaCl and 3 mM acetic acid were enhanced by depolarizing slow potentials induced by GP nerve stimulation, but were depressed by the hyperpolarizing slow potentials. On average, the receptor potential of taste cells for 0.5 M NaCl was increased by 25% by the GP nerve-induced slow potential, but the receptor potential of taste cells for 3 mM acetic acid was decreased by 1% by the slow potential. These transformations of receptor potentials in frog taste cells were not due to a synaptic event initiated between taste cells and the efferent nerve fiber, but due to a non-synaptic event, a lingual junction potential generated in the dorsal lingual epithelium by GP nerve stimulation.