SEROTONERGIC MODULATION OF TASTE
Clare M Mathes
Florida State University, Sponsored Research Services, Tallahassee, Fl 32306-4166
Grant 5F32DC010517-02 from National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders
Abstract: The goal ofthis application is to provide specialized training in animal taste psychophysics, a field which is indispensablle in linking neurobiological mechanisms of the gustatory system to behaviorally assessed taste function. To achieve this goal, experiments will be conducted using psychophysical procedures to assess the effects of pharmacological modulation of serotonin on taste-guided behavior in rats. Drugs that affect ingestive behavior are often assumed to do so by modulating the rewarding characteristics of the taste of foods and fluids. Understanding the mechanisms of action of these drugs is crucial to defining the role of the hedonic aspect of taste in eating behavior, which indisputably is contributing to this nation´s growing problem with obesity. However, it is premature to conclude that a drug only affects hedonic components of taste without first assessing its effects on sensory-discriminative function. Serotonin is a ubiquitous neurotrasmitter that has actions in areas of the brain and periphery involved in taste and reward. Drugs that impinge on serotonergic transmission affect ingestion of food and fluid and impact taste perceptions in depressed and healthy humans. The extent to which this results from hedonic or discriminative aspects of taste has yet to be determined. The experiments in this proposal are designed to explicitly test the dose-related effect of an inhibitor and a facilitator of serotonin reuptake (and thus a functional agonist and antagonist, respectively) on performance in psychophysical tasks. These tasks assess concentration-dependent changes in the detection of, identification of, and hedonic responsiveness to taste stimuli. In a field advancing rapidly toward understanding the physiologic hardware of taste perception, scientists fluent in behavioral techniques are needed to link the growing body of information concerning the neurobiological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of taste processing to its final common output - behavior. The experiments in this proposal are designed to assess how drugs not only affect how "good" or "bad" something tastes, but also how strong it is and what it tastes like, independent of its rewarding or aversive characterisfics. These studies will help define how chemical signaling in the body affects taste-guided behavior (i.e., eating and drinking). This informafion may help clinicians understand and more effectively treat patients with eating disorders affected by the rewarding characteristics of taste (e.g., obesity) and psychiatric disorders in which taste percepfions are distorted (e.g., depression)
Keywords: 3-(2-Aminoethyl)-1H-indol-5-ol; 5-HT; 5-Hydroxytryptamine; 5HT; Affect; Agonist; Altered Taste; American; Animal Model; Animal Models and Related Studies; Animals; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Behavioral Sciences; Brain; Brain region; Categories; Cell Communication and Signaling; Cell Signaling; Characteristics; Chemicals; Clinical; Cognitive Discrimination; Common Rat Strains; Complex; Cues; Deglutition; Depressed mood; Depression; Depressive disorder; Detection; Diet; Discrimination; Discrimination (Psychology); Disease; Disorder; Dose; Drug effect disorder; Drugs; Eating; Eating Behavior; Eating Disorders; Encephalon; Encephalons; Enteramine; Evaluation; Event; Feeding Patterns; Feeding behaviors; Food; Food Intake; Funding; Goals; Gustation; Hippophaine; Human; Human, General; Impairment; Ingestion; Ingestive Behavior; Intake; Intracellular Communication and Signaling; Knowledge; Link; Liquid substance; Mammals, Rats; Man (Taxonomy); Man, Modern; Measures; Medical Specialities; Medication; Mental Depression; Mental disorders; Mental health disorders; Methods; Methods and Techniques; Methods, Other; Molecular; Nervous System, Brain; Neurobiology; Neurosis, Depressive; Obesity; Output; Pathway interactions; Patients; Performance; Peripheral; Pharmaceutic Preparations; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmacology; Physiologic; Physiological; Procedures; Process; Psychiatric Disease; Psychiatric Disorder; Psychology, Physiologic; Psychology, Physiological; Psychophysic; Psychophysics; Psychophysiological; Psychophysiology; QOL; Quality of life; Rat; Rattus; Receptor Cell; Receptor Protein; Reporting; Rewards; Role; SSRI; Scientist; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor; Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor; Sensory; Serotonergic Agents; Serotonergic Drugs; Serotonin; Serotonin Agents; Serotonin Drugs; Signal Transduction; Signal Transduction Systems; Signaling; Specialties, Medical; Specialty; Stimulus; Swallowing; System; System, LOINC Axis 4; Taste; Taste Buds; Taste Perception; Techniques; Testing; Training; Transmission; Unspecified Mental Disorder; adiposity; animal model development; behavioral pharmacology; biological signal transduction; career; corpulence; corpulency; corpulentia; depressed; design; designing; disease/disorder; drinking; drug action; drug/agent; experience; experiment; experimental research; experimental study; feeding-related behaviors; fluid; hedonic; inhibitor; inhibitor/antagonist; intervention development; liquid; medical specialties; mental illness; model organism; neurobiological; neurobiological mechanism; nutrient intake activity; obese; obese people; obese person; obese population; pathway; premature; psycho-physiological; psychological disorder; public health relevance; receptor; research study; response; reuptake; reward processing; sadness; serotonin reuptake inhibitor; social role; theories; therapy development; transmission process; treatment development
Project start date: 2009-08-27
Project end date: 2012-08-26
Budget start date: 27-AUG-2010
Budget end date: 26-AUG-2011
PFA/PA: PA-07-107
5F32DC010517-02 (2010): $50474
Sponsored Links Excellgen http://Excellgen.com
Grants awarded to Clare M Mathes
SEROTONERGIC MODULATION OF TASTE
Clare M Mathes
Florida State University, Sponsored Research Services, Tallahassee, Fl 32306-4166
Grant 1F32DC010517-01 from National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders
Abstract: The goal ofthis application is to provide specialized training in animal taste psychophysics, a field which is indispensablle in linking neurobiological mechanisms of the gustatory system to behaviorally assessed taste function. To achieve this goal, experiments will be conducted using psychophysical procedures to assess the effects of pharmacological modulation of serotonin on taste-guided behavior in rats. Drugs that affect ingestive behavior are often assumed to do so by modulating the rewarding characteristics of the taste of foods and fluids. Understanding the mechanisms of action of these drugs is crucial to defining the role of the hedonic aspect of taste in eating behavior, which indisputably is contributing to this nation´s growing problem with obesity. However, it is premature to conclude that a drug only affects hedonic components of taste without first assessing its effects on sensory-discriminative function. Serotonin is a ubiquitous neurotrasmitter that has actions in areas of the brain and periphery involved in taste and reward. Drugs that impinge on serotonergic transmission affect ingestion of food and fluid and impact taste perceptions in depressed and healthy humans. The extent to which this results from hedonic or discriminative aspects of taste has yet to be determined. The experiments in this proposal are designed to explicitly test the dose-related effect of an inhibitor and a facilitator of serotonin reuptake (and thus a functional agonist and antagonist, respectively) on performance in psychophysical tasks. These tasks assess concentration-dependent changes in the detection of, identification of, and hedonic responsiveness to taste stimuli. In a field advancing rapidly toward understanding the physiologic hardware of taste perception, scientists fluent in behavioral techniques are needed to link the growing body of information concerning the neurobiological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of taste processing to its final common output - behavior. The experiments in this proposal are designed to assess how drugs not only affect how "good" or "bad" something tastes, but also how strong it is and what it tastes like, independent of its rewarding or aversive characterisfics. These studies will help define how chemical signaling in the body affects taste-guided behavior (i.e., eating and drinking). This informafion may help clinicians understand and more effectively treat patients with eating disorders affected by the rewarding characteristics of taste (e.g., obesity) and psychiatric disorders in which taste percepfions are distorted (e.g., depression)
Keywords: 3-(2-Aminoethyl)-1H-indol-5-ol; 5-HT; 5-Hydroxytryptamine; 5HT; Affect; Agonist; Altered Taste; American; Animal Model; Animal Models and Related Studies; Animals; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Behavioral Assay; Behavioral Sciences; Brain; Brain region; Categories; Cell Communication and Signaling; Cell Signaling; Characteristics; Chemicals; Clinical; Cognitive Discrimination; Common Rat Strains; Complex; Cues; Deglutition; Depressive disorder; Detection; Diet; Discrimination; Discrimination (Psychology); Disease; Disorder; Dose; Drug effect disorder; Drugs; Eating; Eating Behavior; Eating Disorders; Encephalon; Encephalons; Enteramine; Evaluation; Event; Feeding Patterns; Feeding behaviors; Food; Food Intake; Funding; Goals; Gustation; Hippophaine; Human; Human, General; Impairment; Ingestion; Ingestive Behavior; Intake; Intracellular Communication and Signaling; Knowledge; Link; Liquid substance; Mammals, Rats; Man (Taxonomy); Man, Modern; Measures; Medical Specialities; Medication; Mental disorders; Mental health disorders; Methods; Methods and Techniques; Methods, Other; Molecular; Nervous System, Brain; Neurobiology; Neurosis, Depressive; Obesity; Output; Pathway interactions; Patients; Patterns, Feeding; Performance; Peripheral; Pharmaceutic Preparations; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Pharmacology; Physiologic; Physiological; Procedures; Process; Psychiatric Disease; Psychiatric Disorder; Psychology, Physiologic; Psychology, Physiological; Psychophysic; Psychophysics; Psychophysiological; Psychophysiology; QOL; Quality of life; Rat; Rattus; Receptor Cell; Receptor Protein; Reporting; Rewards; Role; SSRI; Scientist; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor; Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor; Sensory; Serotonergic Agents; Serotonergic Drugs; Serotonin; Serotonin Agents; Serotonin Drugs; Signal Transduction; Signal Transduction Systems; Signaling; Specialties, Medical; Specialty; Stimulus; Swallowing; System; System, LOINC Axis 4; Taste; Taste Buds; Taste Perception; Techniques; Testing; Training; Transmission; Unspecified Mental Disorder; adiposity; animal model development; behavioral pharmacology; biological signal transduction; career; corpulence; corpulency; corpulentia; depressed; depression; design; designing; disease/disorder; drinking; drug action; drug/agent; experience; experiment; experimental research; experimental study; feeding-related behaviors; fluid; hedonic; inhibitor; inhibitor/antagonist; intervention development; liquid; medical specialties; mental illness; model organism; neurobiological; neurobiological mechanism; nutrient intake activity; obese; obese people; obese person; obese population; pathway; premature; psycho-physiological; psychological disorder; public health relevance; receptor; research study; response; reuptake; reward processing; serotonin reuptake inhibitor; social role; theories; therapy development; transmission process; treatment development
Project start date: 2009-08-27
Project end date: 2012-08-26
Budget start date: 27-AUG-2009
Budget end date: 26-AUG-2010
PFA/PA: PA-07-107
1F32DC010517-01 (2009): $47210