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| Poster #228 The role of stimulus temperature on salt perception and central gustatory representation in behaving Mice |
| Mariela E. Marques1, Elise Frierson2, Katherine O. Odegaard2, Cecilia G. Bouaichi1, Roberto Vincis3 1Department of Biological Sciences and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States 2Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States 3Department of Biological Sciences, Program in Neuroscience, and Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States |
The experience of consuming food and beverages results in multimodal sensations that involve the integration of intraoral gustatory, retronasal olfactory, and somatosensory cues that all contribute to the percept of flavor. Human psychophysical studies that have focused on just the gustatory and somatosensory cues have shown, although equivocal, that temperature can influence taste perception and contribute to food and beverage preferences that influence how much we eat. For example, if temperature alters the perceived intensity of table salt (NaCl), this could result in a diet high in sodium which can cause serious health consequences such as high blood pressure, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues that can increase the risk of, or even cause, death. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate how temperature modulates salt sensitivity and influences the central salt representation in behaving mice. Here, we used a behavioral two-response taste detection task, brief access preference test, and electrophysiological recordings from electrodes and silicon probes to investigate how temperature modifies the sensory-discriminative and hedonic properties of sodium (NaCl) and non-sodium (KCl) salt taste. We found that 1) the mice had higher detection thresholds when both salt solutions were presented at 14°C compared to when they were presented at 36°C, 2) mice had an amiloride-dependent increase in preference for 0.6M NaCl when presented at 36°C and 3) temperature strongly impacts NaCl and KCl concentration coding in the gustatory cortex (GC). These results obtained in mildly water deprived mice, imply that temperature massively shapes the salt responses of GC neurons, and that colder salty foods and beverages might be harder to detect compared to warmer salty foods and beverages. |