title: Taste as a basis for body wisdom.
abstract: The sense of taste uses a variety of discrete receptor mechanisms to identify nutrients and toxins. Information from receptors is arrayed along a dimension of physiological welfare, which serves as the organizing principle of the taste system. This, in turn, drives central physiological and neurochemical processes that underlie hedonics: nutrients elicit reward; toxins, aversion. The sensitivity of the taste system, and so the placement of chemical stimuli along the welfare dimension, is modifiable based on level of satiety, experience, or physiological need. These modifications may be sufficient to guide the animal's food choices according to those that satisfy its needs at the moment. Thus, judicious changes in taste sensitivity of the rodent may underlie the demonstrated behavior of body wisdom.
authors.affiliation: Office of Graduate and Research Affairs, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-8220, USA. tom.scott@sdsu.edu
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004328:Drive; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*