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Neuroscientists at the University of Oklahoma have discovered a pathway in the brain where taste and pain intersect in a new study originally designed to examine the intersection of food taste and temperature. This study is the first time researchers have shown that taste and pain signals come together in the brain and use the same circuits. The University's neuroscientists have been awarded a $ 1.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study this concept.
"Our study originally aimed to understand how the sense of taste works with the thermal sensation in this study to better understand the relationship between taste, food preferences, health, and well-being. significant at multiple levels, "said Christian Lemon, Principal Grant Researcher and Associate Professor in the Department of UO Biology, at the College of Arts and Sciences of OU. "What we discovered was a surprise, as the temperature signals converged with taste near the center of the brain, just like the neural messages about taste and pain."
Lemon and Jinrong Li, an associate researcher at OU, used molecular biology and physiology to understand how taste and heat pathways could converge with pain. OR researchers have learned from this study that neural circuits carrying signals for aversive tastes also carry a response to pain. This intersection can support a protection function and opens the possibility for taste messages to alter how pain signals are transmitted in the brain, but further research is needed.
The sense of taste is a complex sensory and nutritive sensor that has many implications for how the nervous system guides behavior related to food preferences and, possibly, the response to pain. Now that the circuit has been identified, researchers in OR will explore the manipulation of the circuit to test its influence on the behavior associated with taste and pain. Ultimately, understanding of taste is essential to define its role in human disorders associated with eating behaviors, such as obesity, diabetes, and other conditions and illnesses.
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Material provided by University of Oklahoma. Original written by Jana Smith. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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