Ch 8 - The Chemical Senses Flashcards
What is the chemical sense for taste?
Gustation
What is the chemical sense for smell?
Olfaction
What are chemically sensitive cells called?
Chemoreceptors
What similar task does gustation and olfaction share?
The section of environmental chemicals
What’s does the nervous system perceive flavor?
By the use of both gustation and olfaction
What is the chemically sensitive part of a taste receptor cell?
It’s small membrane region, called the apical end, near the surface of the tongue
Are taste receptor cells neurons?
No
Taste receptors form what?
Synapses with the endings of the gustatory afférent axons near the bottom of the taste bud
What else do taste receptors make?
Both electrical and chemical synapses onto some of the basal cells
What do some basal cells do?
Synapse onto the sensory axons and these may form a simple information processing circuit within each taste bud
What happens when the receptor membrane depolarizes?
Causes voltage gated calcium channels to open; Ca2+ enters the cytoplasm triggering the release of transmitter molecules
What do soir and salty taste cells release?
Serotonin onto gustatory axons
What do sweet/bitter and Unami taste cells release?
ATP as their primary transmitter
What is transduction?
The process by which an environment stimulus causes an electrical response in a sensory receptor
How so sweet receptors resemble bitter receptors?
They are both dimers for G protein couples receptors
