The effect of nerve stump length upon mammalian taste responses.
A decline in the magnitude of the summated responses evoked by taste solutions began about 1 h following IXth nerve transection. In 41 IXth nerves transected at different lengths we found a linear relationship between the length of the IXth nerve stump remaining attached to the tongue and the time for the taste response amplitude to fall to 50% of its control magnitude. The existence of a nerve stump length dependency suggests that IXth nerve taste responses in the gerbil are maintained by the axonal transport of trophic substances to the tongue.
D000818:Animals; D001370:Axonal Transport; D003714:Denervation; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005849:Gerbillinae; D005930:Glossopharyngeal Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009410:Nerve Degeneration; D009435:Synaptic Transmission; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000502:physiology