Parabrachial gustatory neural responses to monosodium glutamate ingested by awake rats

Hisao Nishijo, Taketoshi Ono, Ralph Norgren

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    26 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    A sample of 41 gustatory neurons isolated in the parabrachial nuclei of awake, behaving rats was tested with sapid solutions of 0.1 M monosodium glutamate (MSG), 0.5 mM of guanosine 5′-monophosphate (GMP), and a mixture of MSG and GMP as well as with 0.3 M sucrose, 0.1 M NaCl, 0.01 M citric acid, and 0.0001 M QHCl. Interneuronal correlation coefficients and factor analysis indicated that both the sodium cation and glutamic anion contributed to the activity elicited by MSG. Guanosine potentiated the responses to MSG, but only in neurons that also responded to sucrose. These results suggest that the gustatory contribution to the flavor denoted by the Japanese word "umami" may be mediated, in part, by neurons that also respond to chemicals described by humans as sweet.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)965-971
    Number of pages7
    JournalPhysiology and Behavior
    Volume49
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    StatePublished - May 1991

    All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

    • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
    • Behavioral Neuroscience

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