FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

membrane. (Unlike the receptor proteins for some of the other tastes described below, the salt taste receptor proteins have not ...

to the brain. The diversity of GPCRs allows for a variety of different molecular shapes to be associated with the taste of bitte ...

molecules. The particular molecular shapes of the various sugar mol- ecules permit them to bind as ligands to the sweet GPCRs, s ...

times called artificial sweeteners, because they are made by human chemists and not found “naturally” in nature. The first such ...

taste, inadvertently tasting something that they probably wouldn't have had they been more careful. Max Delbriick, in another co ...

sucrose. This strategy paid off with a molecule that is approximately six hundred times sweeter than sucrose: sucralose, origina ...

many molecular constituents producing a combination of sweet and bitter tastes. The sweet-tasting components have been identifie ...

to foods when cooking, if one desired. He called the new taste umami, from the Japanese words for delicious (umai) and taste (mi ...

the brain via the lower brainstem (Fig. 13.2) and connect with cells in the nucleus solitarius, from which two axon tracts emerg ...

; Somatosensory Ss cortex Thalamus Insula Amygdala Hypothalamus Nucleus solitarius Cranial nerves 7,9,10 Figure 13.2. A coronal ...

a member of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family of plants. There is no shortage of powerful plants in this impressive family! The ...

Figure 13.3. Chili plant, Capsicum annuum. Amazingly, thermal heat also activates these capsaicin-sensitive proteins. That is, i ...

Its ion channel opens in response to capsaicin and also to heat in the temperature range of 43-50 degrees Celsius (109-122 degre ...

OH Menthol Another example of pungency in foods, similar to the hot spicy pungency of chili and of black pepper, but not the sam ...

discovered ways. TRP channels are another example of how when life comes up with a structure possessing useful properties, it ge ...

tastes of salt, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami are still there. So is the hotness of chili or mustard and the coolness of mint. ...

CHAPTER 1 4 Eyes and Vision Our visual system responds to electromagnetic radiation in the energy range called visible light—so ...

light—in the ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma-ray regions of the spec- trum—interactions with molecular and cellular structures are ...

Figure 14.1. Cross section of the human eyeball, our organ of vision. The muscles of the iris regulate the size of the pupillary ...

responding to a different range of light wavelengths. The rod and cone cells contain specific protein molecules, called rhodopsi ...